How to play Connections
Connections deals out 16 words and hides four groups of four inside them. The board is built to mislead: plenty of words look like a group and belong nowhere near each other. This page covers the goal, the mistake counter, the four difficulty colors and how to test a group before you commit.
The goal
Sort all 16 words into four groups of four, where the four words in each group share a connection. Some connections are plain categories, like pasta shapes or kinds of crabs. Others are wordplay: words that can all follow the same word, or that share a hidden piece. Every word on the board belongs to exactly one group, and finding all four groups before your mistakes run out is the win.
How a round works
Step 1 - Read the whole board first. All 16 words are in front of you at once. Scan every word before you select anything, because the obvious group for one word is often a decoy built around it.
Step 2 - Pick four and submit. Select the four words you believe share a connection and submit the group. You can change your selection freely until you submit.
Step 3 - A right group locks in. A correct group leaves the board, its four words are set aside, and its color and category name are revealed. Twelve words remain, then eight, then four.
Step 4 - A wrong group costs a mistake. You are allowed four mistakes in a round. If three of your four words belong to one group and the fourth does not, the game tells you that you are one away, which is a free clue about where the odd word sits.
Step 5 - Finish or run out. Solve all four groups to win the round. If the fourth mistake lands first, the round ends and the game reveals the groups you missed.
The four colors
There is no point score in Connections. The scorekeeping is the mistake counter, plus the color of each group you find. Groups come in four difficulty tiers, shown as colors once a group is solved: yellow is the most straightforward, then green, then blue, and purple is the trickiest, usually the wordplay group. You are not told a group's color in advance, so a group that feels easy can still be the purple one in disguise.
Good first moves
Name the connection out loud before you submit. If you cannot say the link in one plain sentence, the four words probably do not form a group yet. A group you can name is a group worth spending a submission on.
Trust a clean set of exactly four. A theme with five or six plausible members is a trap until something is solved: the board is seeded with overlaps on purpose. Start with the group where exactly four words fit and no fifth word crowds in.
Solve your surest group first. Every group you clear removes four decoys from the board and makes the groups underneath easier to see. Clearing the straightforward group early is worth more than an early swing at the clever one.
Expect one wordplay group. Words that complete a phrase, share a first or last word, or hide the same smaller word inside them show up again and again. If three literal categories are found and the last four words make no sense together, read them as wordplay.
Common questions
What does one away mean?
It means three of the four words you submitted belong to the same group and one does not. Swap the odd word out and try the other three with a new fourth word.
Can a word belong to two groups?
In the finished puzzle, no: each word sits in exactly one group. On the unsolved board, yes, on purpose: many words are planted so they look like they fit a second group, and those overlaps are the decoys.
How many mistakes do I get?
Four wrong submissions are allowed. The fourth wrong submission ends the round, and the game shows you the groups that were left.