A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Thursday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Thursday, October 15 (game #1222).
Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints.
What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc's Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.
NYT Connections today (game #1223) - today's words
Today's NYT Connections words are…
- HUNGARY
- HUNGRY
- HIPPO
- CHICKEN
- CHIP
- CHAD
- COOLIDGE
- CYRUS
- SPAN
- MARK
- LAOS
- NICK
- PARAGUAY
- SMARTIES
- BULGARI
- SCRATCH
NYT Connections today (game #1223) - hint #1 - group hints
What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: Paint repair required
- GREEN: Nations without a coastline
- BLUE: Nations with something absent
- PURPLE: Fashionable to begin with
Need more clues?
We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…
NYT Connections today (game #1223) - hint #2 - group answers
What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: SURFACE IMPERFECTIONS
- GREEN: LANDLOCKED COUNTRIES
- BLUE: EUROPEAN COUNTRIES MINUS A LETTER
- PURPLE: STARTING WITH WORDS FOR "STYLISH"
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Connections today (game #1223) - the answers
The answers to today's Connections, game #1223, are…
- YELLOW: SURFACE IMPERFECTIONS: CHIP, MARK, NICK, SCRATCH
- GREEN: LANDLOCKED COUNTRIES: CHAD, HUNGARY, LAOS, PARAGUAY
- BLUE: EUROPEAN COUNTRIES MINUS A LETTER: BULGARI, CYRUS, HUNGRY, SPAN
- PURPLE: STARTING WITH WORDS FOR "STYLISH": CHICKEN, COOLIDGE, HIPPO, SMARTIES
- My rating: Easy
- My score: Perfect
Having HUNGRY and HIPPO beside each other on the board, not to mention HUNGRY and HUNGARY, was very distracting. Fortunately I managed to focus and completed the game without a hitch.
I got the four EUROPEAN COUNTRIES MINUS A LETTER first, but it was a toss of a coin between that and the quartet of LANDLOCKED COUNTRIES.
Once again I managed to get Yellow last, which is something of an achievement considering that it was the most straightforward of today's groups and required no lateral thinking. Perhaps Hungry Hippo was a mental distraction after all.
Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Thursday, October 15, 2026, game #1222)
- YELLOW: WAYS TO PRESERVE FOOD: CURE, DRY, PICKLE, SMOKE
- GREEN: THINGS YOU CAN SCORE IN SPORTS: BASKET, GOAL, RUN, TOUCHDOWN
- BLUE: LOWEST PART: BASE, BOTTOM, FOOT, FOUNDATION
- PURPLE: LOW LANDFORMS WITH A LETTER CHANGED: CANNON, FORGE, RACINE, VOLLEY
What is NYT Connections?
NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.
On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.
It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.
It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.