How the NYT’s Connections game took over the internet

Why Connections makes you feel smart and also stupid. vox.com/culture CULTURE   Wanna feel kinda stupid? That’s the idea behind the New York Times’s Connections, the new word game that’s slowly usurping Wordle, the company’s other very popular lexicographical contest. Basically, you have to find a through line — animals in the ocean, things you see in a stadium, music terms, precious gemstones, and every possible grouping under the sun — between four words that at first glance make no sense together. As my colleague [Rebecca Jennings pointed out](, Connections is tougher for many puzzle players because you have to think of categories (sometimes extremely difficult and unorthodox ones!) rather than a specific word. The latter can be deduced by guessing vowels, but there aren’t such limitations on, say, what words have a double meaning in ornithology. The frustration that Connections creates is intentional, because it triggers a sense of accomplishment in people who figure it out each day. And perhaps more central to its success, so many people complaining about how difficult it is has made it even more popular. —[Alex Abad-Santos](, senior correspondent Connections, the most fun (and sometimes frustrating) game on the internet [an illustration of the Connections NYT game interface]( Vox; NYT What do the words “loo,” “condo,” “haw,” “hero” have in common? Unless you’re extremely into ornithology, it’s impressive if you were able to pick out the fact that if you added another letter to each of them, you’d spell the name of a bird. But if you’re a regular player of the New York Times game Connections, these four words have another significance: They make up one of the puzzle’s most notoriously tricky categories of all time. Connections — an often frustrating but integral addition to a morning routine that might also include the Times’s daily crossword, Wordle, and Spelling Bee, or offshoots like the geography quiz Worldle and the GDP guesser Tradle — debuted last summer. [Over the past nine months, it’s become the second-most played game at the Times](, after Wordle, but it’s captured social media in a way that a simple five-letter word-of-the-day puzzle never could. Connections is played like so: There is a four-by-four grid, and each box has a word in it. Your job is to group them into sets of four that make sense on levels that go from easy (say, synonyms or simply defined categories) to difficult (the bird one). When submitted, the easiest group will show up in yellow, the second-easiest in green, the second-hardest in blue, and the hardest in purple. You can see how this might make people feel angry or, as one woman posted on TikTok, like she’s “immediately ready to fight” the game’s editor. That’s because Connections, even more so than crosswords, whose difficulty ratings are usually made clear from the outset, or Wordle, which relies heavily on luck, has the unique ability to make [people feel either really, really smart or really, really stupid](. In a post titled “Why NYT’s Connections makes you feel bad,” game designer Raph Koster suggests Connections is “fundamentally elitist” because it requires players to have a broad education to find possible categories, and then punishes them for making guesses (players have only four tries before they fail the game). Some puzzles may be easier for certain folks — in order to know that “emerald,” “radiant,” “princess,” and “baguette” go together, you’ve got to have some knowledge of jewelry — and be extra difficult for those frustrated by potential overlap. [Read the full story »](  [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( Beyoncé’s country roots A century of history of Black country music, explained by Alice Randall. [Read the full story »]( The sexual assault and trafficking allegations against Diddy, explained The accusations are part of a larger reckoning in music — one that some say is long overdue. [Read the full story »](   Support our work We aim to explain what we buy, why we buy it, and why it matters. Support our mission by making a gift today. [Give](   More good stuff to read today - [We’re long overdue for an Asian lead on The Bachelor franchise]( - [The story of Kate Middleton’s disappearance is haunted by Meghan Markle]( - [3 Body Problem, explained with the help of an astrophysicist]( - [Kate Middleton’s cancer diagnosis is part of a frightening global trend]( - [The Baltimore bridge collapse is only the latest — and least — of global shipping’s problems]( - [Why March Madness is all about Caitlin Clark](  [Learn more about RevenueStripe...](   [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [YouTube]( Manage your [email preferences]( or [unsubscribe](param=culture). If you value Vox’s unique explanatory journalism, support our work with a one-time or recurring [contribution](. View our [Privacy Policy]( and our [Terms of Service](. Vox Media, 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, Floor 12, Washington, DC 20036. Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved.