On your last attempt, and haven’t knocked down any of the categories in today’s Connections puzzle yet? We suggest entering informed answers after taking a look at the hints we’ve curated for you. If you need more help, we’ll give you one word from each group, followed by the list of themes. Finally, the answers and their explanations will be listed at the end of the page. So, here are all the hints, clues, and answers to NYT Connections today (#1,224, October 17, 2026).
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In This Article
What is Connections?
After Wordle, Connections is the New York Times’ most popular word game. The rules are simple. You need to find words with a common theme and group them into 4 groups of 4. The 16-word grid is designed with an increasing level of difficulty. The Yellow group is the easiest to spot, followed by Green, Blue, and Purple. The misdirects and red herrings can trip you up, but they also make the puzzle more fun. You can play Connections in the NYT Games app or on the NYT website.
Some tips to solve Connections
Look for the obvious patterns: Not every category in the puzzle is confusing. The Yellow and Green category words are relatively easy to spot. However, if something seems too obvious, it could be a red herring. Typically, the first two categories comprise verbs and adjectives. The misdirects are often nouns.
Double-check your submissions: ‘Do not overthink’ is usually a good tip for solving most puzzles, but it doesn’t really apply to Connections. Before submitting a set of words, you should always check whether they fit somewhere else too.
Hit a dead end? Use the shuffle button: The shuffle button at the bottom of the grid exists for a reason. Placing the words in different positions can spark new connections. Think of it as a mental refresh. New patterns will emerge, and you may be able to find a breakthrough.
Tackle the Purple category with extra caution: The Connections team is known to serve up the toughest and most unexpected words for the Purple category. Here are some of the common tropes that you should look out for:
- Homophones (For example: ‘Where’, ‘Wear’, ‘Ware’, and ‘Weir’)
- Words within words (For example: ‘Slip’, ‘Hear’, ‘Keyes’, and ‘Undiagnosed’ could be ‘Words containing parts of the face’)
- Words minus a letter (For example: ‘Anther’, ‘Easel’, ‘Hark’, and ‘Lama’ could be ‘Animals minus starting letter’)
- Words preceded or followed by another word (For example: ‘Face’, ‘Sports’, ‘Note’, and ‘Year’ could be ‘____ Book’)
Here’s your grid for today
- BREA
- KING
- SNAP
- PING
- STILL
- PAZ
- SNOW
- SHOT
- BOHÈME
- FIDDLER
- ALERT
- CHIME
- SCALA
- HERMIT
- DING
Hints for NYT Connections (#1,224) October 17, 2026
Let’s get you started with some general, spoiler-free hints.
- 🟡Yellow Group: Beep beep. 📩
- 🟢Green Group: Click. 📸
- 🔵Blue Group: 🦀🦀🦀🦀.
- 🟣Purple Group: Preceded by a word that means ‘The’ in French, Italian, and Spanish.
One Word Per Category (Contains Spoilers)
Can’t seem to find an in? We’ll give you one word from each category.
- 🟡Yellow Group: Alert.
- 🟢Green Group: Print.
- 🔵Blue Group: Fiddler.
- 🟣Purple Group: Bohème.
List of Themes (Major Spoilers)
Maybe getting to know the common themes among the words will help you spot them faster. Here are all the categories for today.
- 🟡Yellow Group: Digital Notifications.
- 🟢Green Group: Photo.
- 🔵Blue Group: Kinds Of Crabs.
- 🟣Purple Group: LA ___.
Answers to NYT Connections (#1,224) Today (October 17, 2026)
Close to waving the white flag? Fine, we’ll give you the answers.
- 🟡Yellow Group: Alert, Chime, Ding, Ping. (Digital Notifications)
These words are used to describe the notifications you receive on your phone or PC.
- 🟢Green Group: Print, Shot, Snap, Still. (Photo)
A physical photograph can be referred to by one of these words.
- 🔵Blue Group: Fiddler, Hermit, King, Snow. (Kinds Of Crabs)
Fiddler crab (Ocypodidae). Hermit (Paguroidea). King crab (Lithodidae). Snow crab (Chionoecetes).
- 🟣Purple Group: Bohème, La Brea, La Paz, La Scala. (LA ___)
La Bohème (Opera). La Brea (Drama series). La Paz (Administrative capital of Bolivia). La Scala (Opera house in Milan).
Answers to yesterday’s puzzle (#1,223, October 16, 2026)
- 🟡Yellow Group: Chip, Mark, Nick, Scratch. (Surface Imperfections)
- 🟢Green Group: Chad, Hungary, Laos, Paraguay. (Landlocked Countries)
- 🔵Blue Group: Bulgari, Cyrus, Hungry, Span. (European Countries Minus A Letter)
- 🟣Purple Group: Chicken, Coolidge, Hippo, Smarties. (Starting With Words For ‘Stylish’)
Answers to NYT Connections #1,222 (October 15, 2026)
- 🟡Yellow Group: Cure, Dry, Pickle, Smoke. (Ways To Preserve Food)
- 🟢Green Group: Basket, Goal, Run, Touchdown. (Things You Can Score In Sports)
- 🔵Blue Group: Base, Bottom, Foot, Foundation. (Lowest Part)
- 🟣Purple Group: Cannon, Forge, Racine, Volley. (Low Landforms With A Letter Changed)
Answers to NYT Connections #1,221 (October 14, 2026)
- 🟡Yellow Group: Flicker, Suggestion, Trace, Whiff. (Hint)
- 🟢Green Group: Serve, Slice, Smash, Volley. (Tennis Shots)
- 🔵Blue Group: Flash, Hulk, Punisher, Thing. (Superheroes, With ‘The’)
- 🟣Purple Group: Feed, Fiery, Foment, Fumble. (Starting With Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum)
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How did other Connectors do today?
NYT’s early testers rated today’s Connections puzzle 1.8 out of 5. This puts it in the easy difficulty level. Let us know how you fared in the comments!
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