The NYT Connections puzzle, a daily word challenge by The New York Times, invites players to find hidden connections between words and group them into sets of four. This game, part of The New York Times’ gaming offerings, was launched for PC on June 12, 2023, during its beta testing phase. It has quickly become the second most popular game after Wordle. This guide provides hints and answers for the August 23, 2025, puzzle to assist players.
This game challenges players’ vocabulary and enhances their knowledge of words. Wyna Liu, the associate puzzle editor at The New York Times, created the NYT Connections puzzle game. Players must sort 16 random words into different categories. There are three difficulty levels – Easy, Medium, and Hard. This game presents a great opportunity to improve your vocabulary while having fun. Connections is popular on social media, with people sharing their solutions.
The hints for today’s puzzle are:
Yellow – Contemporary tech creations that reshaped everyday life.
Green – Essential fluids for running and protecting a vehicle.
Blue – Terms for crafty deception and underhanded tricks.
Purple – Words for large venues used for sports and spectacles.
The categories for today’s puzzle are:
Yellow – MODERN INVENTIONS
Green – LIQUIDS YOU PUT INTO CARS
Blue – SKULDUGGERY
Purple – ARENA
The answers for August 23, 2025, are:
Yellow – MODERN INVENTIONS: CRYPTO, PODCAST, SMARTWATCH, VAPE
Green – LIQUIDS YOU PUT INTO CARS: BRAKE FLUID, COOLANT, FUEL, OIL
Blue – SKULDUGGERY: CHICANERY, DECEIT, LEGERDMAIN, SUBTERFUGE
Purple – ARENA: BOWL, COLISEUM, HIPPODROME, STADIUM
To play, players are presented with a grid of words and must discover the hidden connections between them. Players can employ their knowledge of synonyms, antonyms, and word families to solve it. Hints are available. Players can track their daily streak and overall progress. Additionally, players can challenge their friends. A new puzzle is released daily at midnight. The objective is to organize 16 words into four groups of four based on their connections. The groups can consist of clickable items, names of research participants, or words that share a common element.
It’s important to be mindful of words that might fit into multiple categories. Experimenting with word placement can help to reveal connections. Each group is color-coded, with yellow typically being the easiest, blue and green of medium difficulty, and purple the most difficult. The purple group often includes wordplay. Players choose four words and submit their answer. Incorrect guesses result in a lost life. A message will appear if the player is one word away from a correct group. Four mistakes mean game over.