NYT Connections Hints and Answer Today

Today’s Connections Hints — #1,254 (October 25, 2026)

Here is what links each group, from the easiest (yellow) to the trickiest (purple). Read only as far as you need.

• Yellow (Easiest): STEAL
• Green (Easy): PASTA SHAPES
• Blue (Tricky): FICTIONAL TOMS
• Purple (Trickiest): THINGS THAT CAN BE SNAPPED

What the colors mean

The New York Times assigns the colors, not you. They are a difficulty ladder, and purple is the one that usually takes wordplay to see.

Color	What the link usually is
Yellow	A plain category you would name out loud: kinds of fruit, card games, things that are round.
Green	Still a straight category, a step less obvious, often with a word that also fits another group.
Blue	Needs a second meaning or a specific bit of knowledge: brands, characters, slang, sports terms.
Purple	Wordplay. Hidden words inside words, homophones, words that go before or after the same word, anagrams, or a letter added or removed. It is almost always the last group left.

Quick test for purple: if four words have nothing to do with each other as things, look at their spelling and sound instead.

Still stuck? One word in the purple group is FINGERS.

Tap to reveal today’s Connections answers

Yellow — STEALBOOST, PALM, POCKET, SWIPE

Green — PASTA SHAPESBOW TIE, ELBOW, SHELL, WAGON WHEEL

Blue — FICTIONAL TOMSRIPLEY, SAWYER, SWIFT, THUMB

Purple — THINGS THAT CAN BE SNAPPEDFINGERS, FOOTBALL, GLOW STICK, RUBBER BAND

Yesterday’s Connections Answers

October 24, 2026:

• Yellow — KINDS OF STRIPS: BACON, COMIC, FILM, MÖBIUS
• Green — THINGS ON STICKS: HOBBY HORSE, PINWHEEL, POPSICLE, SPARKLER
• Blue — ONLINE AD FORMATS: BANNER, INTERSTITIAL, OVERLAY, POP-UP
• Purple — ___ BAR: CANDY, SALAD, SPACE, SPORTS

How Connections Works

NYT Connections gives you 16 words. Sort them into four groups of four that share something. Yellow is the easiest group and purple is the hardest. You get four wrong guesses before the game ends. A new puzzle drops at midnight Eastern every day.

Answers come from the official New York Times puzzle data and refresh automatically at midnight Eastern. Last checked: Oct 25, 11:39 am ET.