The New York Times Connections
The New York Times Connections

Sunday's edition of The New York Times' popular word-grouping game offered a deceptively straightforward board that still managed to trip up plenty of solvers, according to multiple puzzle outlets tracking Sunday's release. Here's a complete breakdown of Connections #1113 for June 28, 2026, including hints for those still working through it and the full answers for anyone ready to check their results.

What is Connections?

Connections, launched by The New York Times in June 2023, challenges players to sort 16 words or short phrases into four groups of four, with each group sharing a hidden category. The game, edited by Wyna Liu, has quickly grown into one of the Times' most popular puzzles, played by tens of millions of people each month. Categories are color-coded by difficulty, typically running from yellow and green on the more approachable end to blue and purple representing the trickiest, most misleading groupings. Players are permitted up to four incorrect guesses before the puzzle ends.

One outlet covering Sunday's release described the board as a tidy set of deceptively obvious words that split cleanly into four neat categories once the connections became clear, while still noting that a couple of overlapping words made the grid feel slipperier than it first appeared.

Hints for each category

For players who want a nudge before seeing the full solution, here are hints for each of Sunday's four groupings, presented from easiest to most difficult.

The first category gathers four words that all imply superior rank or quality — terms often used to describe something considered a cut above the standard option.

The second category collects four short, punchy words a person might shout to signal that something should begin immediately.

The third category focuses on small physical accessories that a guitarist might rely on while playing, whether acoustic or electric.

The fourth and trickiest category connects words that may not seem related at first glance, until you consider that each one can be paired with the same single word describing a flat surface or a governing panel.

The answers, category by category

The first group, centered on words implying high quality, consists of CHOICE, FINE, PRIME and SELECT. Several solvers noted that this set carries a particular real-world familiarity, since terms like prime, choice and select are commonly used as quality grades in supermarkets, often signaling a price premium for something marketed as slightly better than the standard option.

The second group, gathering words used to signal that something should start right away, includes BEGIN, GO, NOW and START. Puzzle commentators described this as the most accessible entry point on the board, noting that the four words are everyday verbs that practically announce their own category once a player spots even two of them together.

The third group, focused on items a guitarist might use while playing, consists of CAPO, PICK, SLIDE and STRAP. Solvers familiar with guitar equipment were able to recognize this set quickly, while others without that background reportedly needed a bit more time, since words like PICK and STRAP can easily be mistaken for belonging to unrelated everyday categories before the musical connection becomes clear.

The fourth and most difficult group, the purple category, links CHESS, CORPORATION, DARTS and SURFER under the theme "They Have Boards." Each word pairs with "board" to form a distinct compound or phrase: a chessboard, a corporation's board of directors, a dartboard, and a surfboard. Multiple outlets flagged this as the toughest group of the day, noting that CHESS and DARTS almost too obviously suggest a "board game" theme on their own, which made it harder for some solvers to see that CORPORATION and SURFER belonged in the same group rather than forming a separate, unfinished category.

Why this puzzle proved trickier than it looked

Several puzzle writers covering Sunday's release pointed to specific words that functioned as red herrings, designed to send solvers down the wrong path before the real groupings became apparent. Words like PICK and STRAP, for instance, could plausibly belong to a general tools-or-clothing theme at first glance, while BEGIN and NOW might initially seem interchangeable with other simple action words elsewhere on the board, rather than locking into the "signals to commence" category specifically.

The purple group's wordplay was singled out repeatedly as the board's central challenge. One outlet advised that solvers stuck on a word like CORPORATION or SURFER should think about the noun that typically follows or defines its most recognizable feature, rather than relying on the word's basic, surface-level meaning, since that approach is what ultimately unlocks the "boards" connection.

Strategy tips for tackling today's puzzle and beyond

Puzzle guides accompanying Sunday's release offered several general strategies for approaching Connections more effectively. Players are generally advised to scan the board first for any obvious word pairs or shared meanings before committing to a full group of four, eliminate words that seem unrelated to any apparent theme early on, and stay alert for words capable of fitting more than one category, since the puzzle is deliberately constructed to include such overlaps. Saving the purple category for last is also a commonly recommended approach, since it can often be solved through process of elimination once the other three groups have been correctly identified.

A new Connections puzzle goes live at midnight local time for each player's specific time zone, meaning solvers in different parts of the world are frequently working through different numbered puzzles at any given moment. Players looking to keep their streaks alive can also find daily coverage of the Times' broader puzzle lineup, including Wordle, the Mini Crossword, Strands, and the sports-focused Connections variant, each of which resets on its own midnight schedule and offers a distinct daily test of vocabulary, pattern recognition and lateral thinking.

For those who came up short on Sunday's puzzle, Puzzle #1113 adds one more entry to an archive that continues to grow by the day, with Monday's edition, Puzzle #1114, set to bring an entirely new set of 16 words and four fresh categories for solvers to untangle.

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