Today’s Connections Answer

Section 01 · Hints

Today’s Connections Hints

Work down these in order and stop as soon as you are unstuck. Each step gives a little more away than the last, without dropping the full solution on you.

If you are new here: Connections is the New York Times' daily word-grouping puzzle. You get sixteen words and have to sort them into four hidden groups of four, using at most four mistakes. The catch is deliberate overlap — words are chosen to look like they belong in more than one group, so the puzzle is really about untangling the red herrings. That is why a hint that points you at the right theme is often all you need; the sorting is the fun part, and this ladder is built to give you exactly that much and no more.

Want clues without any answer at all? Use the Connections hints page.

Section 02 · Answer

Today’s Connections Answer (#1222)

Here is the full solution — every word sorted into its group, colour-coded by difficulty. It stays folded until you open it, so you are never spoiled by scrolling. If you only wanted a nudge, close this section and go back to the hint ladder above; if you want to check your own finished grid or you have simply run out of guesses, this is the definitive answer for puzzle #1222. Reading the groups in colour order — yellow through purple — is also a quick way to see how the setter built today's puzzle and which theme was meant to be the hardest.

Reveal today’s answer

SPHERICAL THINGS BASEBALL, GLOBE, MARBLE, ORANGE

IN AN ANXIOUS STATE EXCITED, FEBRILE, FRENETIC, INTENSE

PARTS OF AN AIRPORT APRON, HANGAR, RUNWAY, TERMINAL

ENDING IN GEOMETRY TERMS APPOINT, DEPLANE, FELINE, JANGLE

Section 03 · Yesterday

Yesterday’s Connections Answer

Yesterday’s Connections (puzzle #1225, 2026-07-22) grouped into SYMPTOMS OF AN ALLERGIC REACTION, ON A GOLF SCORECARD, PLATFORM-SPECIFIC POSTS, FEATURES OF A ZEBRA. If you missed it, you can replay yesterday's board — and every other puzzle in the archive — free on Connections Unlimited, which is also the best way to warm up before tomorrow's puzzle drops.

Section 04 · How we do it

How We Post the Connections Answer

• Straight from the official puzzle. We record each day's groups and puzzle number from the live NYT Connections feed.
• Updated after the reset. The page refreshes shortly after midnight Eastern, so today's answer is current within hours.
• Spoiler-safe by default. Hints stay folded and the answer sits behind a button, so landing here never ruins the puzzle.

One quirk worth knowing: the Connections answer is the same for everyone in the world on a given date, but the puzzle number can look different from other sites. The NYT's internal id is not strictly chronological, so we anchor each day to the print date rather than the number — the solution you see here for today always matches the board in the official app. If you are ever unsure whether you are looking at the right day, check the date at the top of the page against the one in your game.

Infinite Wordle is an independent website and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by The New York Times. Connections is a trademark of The New York Times Company.

Section 05 · Strategy

How to Solve Connections Without the Answer

Peeking is fine, but solving it yourself is better. A few habits win most boards:

1. 01
   Find the purple trick first. The trickiest group hides the overlaps. Spot its wordplay and the safe words fall out of the other groups.
2. 02
   Don't guess your first idea. The obvious four usually has one ringer swapped in. Ask which of your four could belong elsewhere before you submit.
3. 03
   Count the candidates. If five or six words fit one theme, you have not found the odd ones out yet — resolve that before guessing.
4. 04
   Use "one away" as data. A near miss means three are right; swap your least confident word rather than rebuilding the group.

Practise the patterns any time on Connections Unlimited — a dozen puzzles teaches the setter's tricks faster than a dozen days of the daily.

Understanding the four colour groups

Every Connections puzzle sorts its four groups by difficulty, and the colours are a map of how the setter thinks. Yellow is the most straightforward — usually a plain theme like "types of dog". Green is a clear connection with a word or two that could mislead. Blue is more specific or less obvious and takes a second look. Purple is the trickiest, and it is almost always wordplay rather than meaning: hidden words, anagrams, "___ + a word", or a pun. Knowing this ranking is a hint in itself — if a group feels obvious it is probably yellow, and if four words seem joined by a trick rather than a theme, you have likely found purple.

Common purple-group tricks

Because purple is where most losses happen, it pays to know its recurring patterns. Watch for four words that can each precede or follow a shared word ("___ BOARD" or "FIRE ___"), words with a smaller word hidden inside them, homophones, anagrams of a set, or members of a category you would never group by meaning — say, four words each containing a body part. When three groups look obvious but one word simply refuses to fit anywhere, that word almost always belongs to a purple trick you have not spotted yet. Training your eye for these mechanisms is the single biggest jump in Connections skill.

The other habit that separates consistent solvers from streaky ones is treating the game as elimination rather than recognition. Beginners look for a group they recognise and guess the moment they find four that fit; strong players instead find the words that are hardest to place and work out where those must go, which often locks the rest of the board automatically. If two words each seem to fit the same easy group, neither is safe until you have decided which one the puzzle actually wants. Slowing down at exactly that moment, rather than submitting your first clean four, is what turns a lost board into a solved one.

Quick tips if you are new to Connections

• Read all sixteen words before touching anything. The first pattern you notice is often the trap the setter wants you to fall for.
• Group loosely in your head first. Sketch out five or six possible members for each theme, then whittle down — do not commit to four until you have resolved the overlaps.
• Shuffle the board. Rearranging the tiles breaks the visual grouping your eye locked onto and often surfaces a connection you missed.
• Bank the sure thing last, not first. If one group is obvious, it is not going anywhere — spend your early attention on the ambiguous words instead.
• Respect the four-mistake limit. There is no partial credit and no way to earn attempts back, so treat every submission as a bet you would take.

Connections vs Wordle

If you arrived from Wordle, the two games test very different muscles. Wordle is deduction inside a fixed structure — five letters, six guesses, and clear green-yellow-grey feedback after every try. Connections is lateral thinking under ambiguity: there is no "right word, wrong group" feedback, only whether a whole set of four is correct, so a single misplaced word tells you far less. There is no vocabulary barrier — you know every word on the board — but the puzzle lives entirely in the relationships between them. Many people enjoy playing both back to back: Wordle warms up your letter instincts, Connections stretches your pattern instincts.

One last note on when to use a page like this. Checking the answer is not failure — some days a category is genuinely obscure, and staring at a stalled grid past your fourth mistake is not fun. The point of separating the hints from the answer is choice: take a nudge, take the full solution, or take nothing and come back tomorrow. However you play it, your streak and your satisfaction stay yours to manage — and the more boards you work through, hint or no hint, the less often you will need to look.

Section 06 · Play

Play More Connections and Word Games

Section 07 · FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions