The New York Times daily Connections puzzle challenges players to group words based on shared themes. Today’s puzzle (#866) proved particularly difficult for many, especially the purple category. Here’s a breakdown of the solution, plus insights into the game’s growing popularity and some of its trickiest patterns.
Today’s Puzzle Breakdown
The puzzle is structured into four color-coded categories, each requiring four words to solve. The difficulty ramps up significantly from yellow to purple.
- Yellow: Best Years – The answers are heyday, pinnacle, prime, and zenith. All represent the peak or high point of something.
- Green: Things You Can Do To Text – The correct words are bold, highlight, strikethrough, and underline. These are common formatting options used when editing text.
- Blue: Things Known For Being Colorful – The solution includes kaleidoscope, peacock, rainbow, and sunset. These all feature vibrant, distinct color displays.
- Purple: Ending in Accessories – This group proved the most challenging. The answers are Baywatch, cootie, herring, and kingpin. Each word ends with a suffix that also refers to an accessory (life-guard, bug, fish-bone, mob-boss).
The Growing Appeal of NYT Games
The Times has expanded its suite of daily puzzles beyond Wordle to include Connections, Strands, and a Sports Edition. The addition of a Connections Bot mirrors Wordle’s analytics tool, allowing players to track their performance. This gamification and data-driven feedback loop encourage daily engagement, contributing to the Times’ subscription growth.
Recurring Puzzle Patterns
Some Connections puzzles are notoriously difficult due to abstract connections or misleading word associations. The article highlights some of the hardest past puzzles:
- Puzzle #5: “Things you can set” (mood, record, table, volleyball) – The link is abstract, making it tough to deduce.
- Puzzle #4: “One in a dozen” (egg, juror, month, rose) – Relies on idioms rather than concrete definitions.
- Puzzle #3: “Streets on screen” (Elm, Fear, Jump, Sesame) – References street names from popular media.
- Puzzle #2: “Power ___” (nap, plant, Ranger, trip) – A fill-in-the-blank structure that requires lateral thinking.
- Puzzle #1: “Things that can run” (candidate, faucet, mascara, nose) – A wordplay puzzle with multiple meanings of the word “run.”
Conclusion
The NYT Connections puzzle remains a popular daily challenge, testing players’ vocabulary and pattern recognition skills. Its difficulty varies, with some puzzles relying on obscure connections or wordplay. The game’s success reflects the broader trend of daily digital puzzles driving engagement and subscriptions for the New York Times.
