Yesterday's NYT Connections Answer for October 13, 2026 (#1,220)
Stuck on puzzle #1,220? Work through a hint for each group, one at a time, or jump straight to the board. Nothing spoils until you tap.
Hints, one group at a time
Welcome back, puzzler. Connections #1,220 for Tuesday, October 13, 2026 is live: 16 words, 4 hidden groups, yellow for the easiest link and purple for the trickiest.
Here's how this page works: the four hints below name a group's color and reveal its theme, nothing more, so work through them in order and stop the moment a group clicks. The full board sits in the purple box further down, locked behind a tap. Nothing here reveals itself on its own, not a category name and not a single word's home.
Yellow first, purple last. Stop as soon as one group clicks into place.
Drumroll, please…
NYT Connections Answer for October 13
Spoiler below · tap to revealDISCERNMENT
FASTEN
SPORTS CHAMPIONSHIP PRIZES
LOOSE ___
Tap a group to reveal it, or show the whole board at once.
About yesterday's puzzle
Yellow: DISCERNMENT · Green: FASTEN · Blue: SPORTS CHAMPIONSHIP PRIZES · Purple: LOOSE ___
Puzzle #1,220, published Tuesday, October 13, 2026, with 16 words across 4 groups.
Connections strategy that actually helps
Proven habits from top solvers, useful today and every day.
Yellow is the easiest group by design. Locking it in first leaves fewer words to second-guess in the harder rows.
The NYT deliberately places words that could fit two categories. If a word feels too obvious, check whether it belongs to a harder group instead.
Think "words before/after X", double meanings, or homophones. If you can't see a literal link, think figuratively.
If five words seem to fit one theme, one of them is a decoy. Spotting the odd one out beats guessing blind.
Don't guess again immediately. Look at your four words and ask which one could belong somewhere else first.
Titles are often very specific, like "Things that precede BALL". Saying it in your head can click the connection into place.
How the yellow-to-purple scale works
Every Connections board sorts its four groups from most to least obvious. The color never changes what it means, only which words sit behind it:
The most straightforward link. Usually the safest opener.
Still direct, but with a word or two that could tempt you elsewhere.
Looser or more specific phrasing. Read the category label closely.
Wordplay territory: puns, double meanings, or hidden patterns.
How to play NYT Connections
The rules in full, for anyone arriving without them.
Connections is a daily grouping puzzle from The New York Times. You are shown 16 words and have to sort them into four groups of four, where each group shares a hidden link that is never stated up front.
- 1 Read all 16 words before touching anything
The board is built so that the first pattern you notice is usually a trap. Take in the whole grid before you commit to a group.
- 2 Select four words and submit
Get all four right and the group locks in with its category name and color. Get it wrong and you lose one of your four lives.
- 3 Use the "One Away" message
If exactly three of your four are correct, the game tells you so. That is a strong clue: one word in your selection belongs to a different category.
- 4 Clear all four groups before four mistakes
Four wrong guesses ends the puzzle and reveals the solution. Solving with zero mistakes is a perfect game.
The New York Times, edited by Wyna Liu
16 words, 4 hidden groups of 4
4 mistakes
Midnight in your local timezone
The colors rank difficulty, not topic: yellow is the most obvious link and purple is almost always wordplay. If a group of four feels too easy to be yellow, it probably belongs to a harder color and you are looking at a decoy.
NYT Connections, answered
Quick answers to the questions we get every day.
What time does the new Connections puzzle come out?
Connections resets at midnight in your local timezone, wherever you are. The board above is rebuilt from the same feed the game uses, so a matching puzzle number means matching groups.
Is Connections harder than Wordle?
It's a different kind of hard. Wordle rewards vocabulary and letter logic; Connections rewards spotting overlapping categories and resisting the NYT's deliberate red herrings, especially in the purple group.
Can I play past Connections puzzles?
The NYT doesn't offer an in-app archive for Connections the way it does for Wordle. Our past answers table below lists the four category names for the last two weeks of boards.
Why does the same word seem to fit two categories?
Because it was built to. The editor deliberately seeds words that read naturally in more than one group, and the correct home is usually decided by whichever category has no other candidate. When two groups compete for a word, solve the group you are least sure about first, since the overlap almost always resolves in favor of the harder color.
What's the best way to avoid mistakes?
Lock in groups you're certain about first, usually yellow and green, then use the "One Away" feedback on your remaining guesses instead of re-guessing blind. See our strategy tips above.
Today's hints for every game
Same spoiler-safe format, for each daily puzzle we cover.
Past Connections answers
Recent Connections puzzles from the last two weeks, with each day's four themes. Use it to check a puzzle you missed or settle an argument about a past board. Today's puzzle stays blurred until you tap it.
| Date | Puzzle | Answer |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 14Today | #1,221 | HINT · TENNIS SHOTS · SUPERHEROES, WITH "THE" · STARTING WITH "FEE, FI, FO, FUM" |
| Oct 13 | #1,220 | DISCERNMENT · FASTEN · SPORTS CHAMPIONSHIP PRIZES · LOOSE ___ |
| Oct 12 | #1,219 | STATUS · TOLERATE · WORD SHORTENINGS, OFTEN · WORDS MADE USING U.S. POSTAL ABBREVIATIONS |
| Oct 11 | #1,218 | PUT TO USE · MONTHLY BILLS · THINGS YOU MIGHT FIND IN A GLOVE COMPARTMENT · ENDING IN GAMBITS |
| Oct 10 | #1,217 | USEFUL WHEN WRITING A PAPER · PRESUME · SOCIAL MEDIA SECTIONS · ___BOXING |
| Oct 09 | #1,216 | DECISIVE VICTORY · CONTROLLED BY A TV REMOTE · FEATURES OF A SPORTS SHOW · AIR ___ |
| Oct 08 | #1,215 | FOLLOWS, AS RULES · OUTDO · THINGS THAT COME IN THREES · ENDING IN ACTORS NAMED TOM |
| Oct 07 | #1,214 | SAVE FOR LATER · KINDS OF BUNS · GREEK NUMERICAL PREFIXES · BEST ___ TONY AWARDS |
| Oct 06 | #1,213 | FINANCIAL FIRMS, FOR SHORT · KINDS OF CHAIRS · ___ INN HOTELS · ENDING IN TALENTS |
| Oct 05 | #1,212 | CALM · ADJECTIVES FOR MATURE CONTENT · KINDS OF BOARDS · ENDING IN WAYS TO TEMPORARILY ACQUIRE |
| Oct 04 | #1,211 | CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT · TABLE TENNIS NEEDS · PARTS OF A JUDGE COSTUME · SILENT ___ |
| Oct 03 | #1,210 | STARTING WITH TERMS FOR "TOILET" · ENDING IN MUSICALS · STARTING WITH U.S. MUSEUMS · ENDING IN FANTASY CREATURES |
| Oct 02 | #1,209 | FINANCE · FINGERS · CUSTOMARY · PRIME ___ |
| Oct 01 | #1,208 | PUT · DRESS SHIRT MEASUREMENTS · 2000S INDIE ROCK BANDS, WITH "THE" · STARTS OF NYT PRINT PUZZLES |