Here for today’s NYT Connections hints and answers? It can be a challenging word puzzle to solve, even with hints. Today’s puzzle is slightly challenging as some of the connections require niche knowledge. So, if you are having trouble solving the puzzle, we are here to help you out. Here we post daily Connections answers, alongside hints and helpful tips and tricks to up your game. So, check out today’s Connections hints and answers for game #952 on January 18, 2026.
Connections Hint and Answers Today
The Connections have four different categories, each color-coded based on difficulty. The difficulty level starts with Yellow as the easiest, followed by Green and then Blue, culminating in Purple as the most challenging.
The difficulty is primarily based on the connection strength of the words, so directly connected words are placed in easier difficulty, such as synonyms, and loosely connected words are placed in greater difficulty, like surnames of popular Hollywood actresses. If you wish to learn about the game in-depth, follow our deep dive into how to play Connections, along with useful tips and strategies.
Alongside Connections, NYT has other amazing puzzles you can solve. So, you should also check out Strands hint for today while you are here.
For anyone having trouble finding the answer, here are the NYT Connections hints and answers for January 18, 2026:
Difficulty Level for Today’s Connections
The difficulty for today’s Connections is 3 out of 5. This is based on my experience of solving the puzzle.
Although difficulty is subjective, the above rating defines 5 as the hardest and 1 as the easiest to solve. If you differ with my opinion on today’s difficulty, drop a comment below to let me know.
Also, if you are enjoying playing Connections, you should also give Wordle a chance. Check out the Wordle hints today to get a better idea of the game.
How to Find NYT Connections Answers
Here’s how I rated the difficulty of today’s Connections and found the answers in each category.
- Green Category: Only these four words were about breaking things, which is why I figured it out first.
- Yellow Category: I assumed it was a bird after seeing the ‘Feathers’ and ‘Wings’ words. Although I misjudged ‘Peck’ and lost one guess, eventually I figured it out.
- Blue Category: Anyone who reads a ton of books like me should be able to figure this one out.
- Purple Category: With the other categories solved, this one answered itself.
Yesterday’s Connections Hints
Is this not the puzzle you are looking for? Then you are likely looking for yesterday’s Connections hints. Yesterday’s puzzle was slightly challenging as the categories had unconventional connections.
How to Play NYT Connections?
If you are a new player and are having trouble solving NYT Connections, then here are some quick tips and tricks to help you out:
- Try to look at the whole picture: You will often find multiple words that seem connected differently to each other. Before you decide to double down on one connection, check if more than four words could relate to it. If so, then it’s a hint that the connection you found is most likely incorrect, and you need to reconsider.
- You don’t have unlimited lifebars: Connections only give you four chances to get it wrong, after which the puzzle will be marked as lost. Thankfully, when players are close to getting a correct answer, the game will hint with the “One Away” message. If you have gotten an answer wrong and don’t see this message, you need to reconsider the other categories over the one you got incorrect.
- Shuffling is useful: NYT Connections has a button for shuffling the words. Although it only shuffles the words in the grid, a change of perspective can often lead to correct answers.
In the end, it’s only a puzzle game. So, don’t stress if today’s puzzle gave you trouble. You will get another chance tomorrow, and we will be back with another guide to help you out.
Here are the NYT Connections category hints for today – Yellow: Duck features, Green: Ruin, Blue: Things you can find on a book’s cover, and Purple: Surnames of famous Golden Age film stars.
Here are the Connections categories for today — Yellow: features of a duck, Green: destroy, Blue: found on a book jacket, and Purple: classic hollywood actors.
The ‘One Away’ message means that out of the four selected words, only one is incorrect. This means that three of the words are connected to the same category.
The different colors in Connections mean the category’s difficulty level. Yellow is the easiest and has the most directly connected words, followed by Green and then Blue, and Purple is the hardest, with words having distant connections.
To play past Connections games, you can head to the Connections archives and pick the date you wish to try out.
