Unlock the Secret Code: NYT Connections #818 Will Challenge Your Brain AND Boost Your Mental Fitness Today!

Ever gotten stuck staring at a jumble of words, wondering if they’re secretly plotting against you? That’s exactly how I felt diving into today’s New York Times Connections puzzle — a brain-teaser that’s as fiendishly tricky as it is addictive. Did I nail it on the first try? Not quite. I jumped the gun solving the purple group first, thinking I had cracked the yellow or green — oops! But hey, that’s part of the charm, right? These puzzles are designed to mess with your noodle just enough to keep you coming back for more, even if it means sneaking a peek at hints (no shame there). If you’re fresh to NYT Connections or looking to sharpen your strategy, stick around—I’ll share my daily wins, missteps, and some handy tips so you can tackle Saturday’s puzzle #818 like a pro. Ready to flex those word muscles and maybe even have a giggle at the purple group’s “too easy” vibes? Let’s dive in! LEARN MORE

Trying to figure out the groups for today’s New York Times Connections word game? I was able to solve it fairly quick, so I’ll share some hints (and spoilers if you want them) to help you get through Saturday’s puzzle: #818. Don’t feel bad for taking a peek — these puzzles are designed to keep you guessing.

Since we’re in this together, I’ll share how I did each day. I accidentally solved purple first, thinking I was solving yellow or green — at least I got it out of the way! I made one mistake, but overall, this puzzle was pretty easy for me today.

If you’re new to NYT Connections, we’ve got some tips to help you along the way. Also, check out today’s Wordle hints and answer.

How to play NYT Connections

NYT Connections is a surprisingly difficult word game and if you play, you’re now considered a “connector.” There are 16 words presented in a four-by-four grid and your goal is to match four words into their respective color-coded groups (yellow, green, blue, purple). Yellow is the easiest to guess while purple is the hardest.

Your job is to find out how the four words are connected to a specific group. For instance, in one recent puzzle, the blue group hint was “related to buying a home” and the words were appraisal, escrow, insurance and mortgage.

If you make a mistake when you submit, that’s okay. You get four guesses before the game is over and the answers are revealed. You can also click on the lightbulb icon in the game to get some hints, but we’ll also provide those here.

If you find yourself obsessed with this game after completing just one puzzle, I’ve got bad news for you. You can only play once a day. The timer resets each night at midnight.

Tips for playing NYT Connections

I only recently started playing Connections, but here are some tips I’ve found useful along the way.

1. When you get an answer wrong, pay attention to the text that appears at the top of the puzzle. “One away” means you only got one word wrong. Analyze each word to find one that might fit better in another group and try a new word.

2. If you’re stuck, shuffle the board. You can shuffle as many times as you’d like to help you see some different word combinations.

3. Try to find the easy yellow group words first. Those words usually stick out because they have so much in common — they’re often synonyms of one another. But be wary of the trick words that could fit into multiple categories.

4. Stumped? Come back to the puzzle later with a fresher mind. Trying to solve a difficult puzzle without “sleeping” on it might result in too many mistakes.

Today’s NYT Connections hints

Check out these hints if you’re having a hard time grouping them together.

I’ll give you my own hints:

Yellow group: Puncture or fracture

Green group: Ghostly

Blue group: Foretell

Purple group: Musical artists win these

Here’s one word from each group:

Yellow group hint word: Broke

Green group hint word: Specter

Blue group hint word: Forecast

Purple group hint word: Choral

Okay, on to the official group names for a bigger hint. If you don’t want to know what those are, then stop scrolling.

NYT Connections group names

Here are the group names for today’s puzzle.

Yellow group: Ruptured

Green group: Apparition

Blue group: Predict

Purple group: “Best ___ Performance” Grammy award

Warning, spoilers ahead! If you scroll past this, the answers are right below.

Final warning! Last chance to go back and finish the game.

Today’s NYT Connections answers (spoilers)

Here are the Connections groups and the words that go with them.

Yellow group: Ruptured (blew, broke, burst, split)

Green group: Apparition (shade, specter, spirit, wight)

Blue group: Predict (call, divine, forecast, read)

Purple group: “Best ___ Performance” Grammy award (Americana, Choral, Jazz, Rap)

My results today

I assumed “divine” was in the green group and it took me a bit to figure out “shade” was the word I was missing. Purple seemed too easy today. I thought I was solving types of music for one of the easier groups.

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Thanks for reading! Share how you did today in the comments.