The New York Times Connections
The New York Times Connections

NEW YORK — The New York Times' Connections puzzle for Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, laid a clever trap for players, with a cluster of familiar letter sign-offs leading many solvers into costly mistakes.

Connections No. 1215 asked players to sort 16 words into four groups of four, ranging from simple synonyms to a tricky wordplay category hiding the names of famous actors.

Several puzzle reviewers rated Thursday's game as hard. TechRadar's reviewer said he made three mistakes before solving it.

Today's 16 words

The full grid for Connections No. 1215 included:

FOOLHARDY, MINDS, THANKS, STOOGES, BEST, WISHES, REGARDS, ECLIPSE, CHEERS, MULHOLLAND, RESPECTS, STRIKES, TOP, AUTOCRUISE, HEEDS and SURPASS.

The big trap

The grid's main red herring was a group of words commonly used to close emails and letters: BEST, WISHES, REGARDS, CHEERS, RESPECTS and THANKS.

With six possible sign-offs on the board, many players assumed one category involved correspondence closings. But no such group existed, and those words were split across all four categories.

TechRadar's reviewer said he fell into exactly that trap, wasting three guesses shuffling between REGARDS, RESPECTS, BEST, CHEERS, WISHES and THANKS.

Spoiler-free category hints

For players who want help without the full answers, here are hints for each group, from easiest to hardest:

  • Yellow: Ways to show you are obeying laws or advice.
  • Green: Ways to describe coming out ahead of the competition.
  • Blue: Things often counted in a specific small number, such as famous trios.
  • Purple: Look at the ends of words for Hollywood stars who share a first name.

One word from each group

Players who need a nudge may want to start with these four words, one from each category:

  • Yellow: RESPECTS
  • Green: TOP
  • Blue: STRIKES
  • Purple: MULHOLLAND

Today's Connections answers

Spoiler warning: The full answers to Connections No. 1215 appear below.

Yellow — Follows, as rules: HEEDS, MINDS, REGARDS, RESPECTS

These words all describe paying attention to or obeying rules, advice or instructions. REGARDS and RESPECTS were the tricky inclusions, as both also work as email sign-offs.

Green — Outdo: BEST, ECLIPSE, SURPASS, TOP

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Each word means to perform better than someone or something else. BEST was another sign-off decoy.

Blue — Things that come in threes: CHEERS, STOOGES, STRIKES, WISHES

These all appear in well-known sets of three. Three cheers are given in celebration with "hip, hip, hooray." The Three Stooges were a slapstick comedy troupe that performed for decades. In baseball, three strikes mean the batter is out. And in folklore, a genie often grants three wishes, as in the story of Aladdin.

Purple — Ending in actors named Tom: AUTOCRUISE, FOOLHARDY, MULHOLLAND, THANKS

The hardest category hid the surnames of four famous actors named Tom at the end of each word:

  • AUTOCRUISE ends with Tom Cruise
  • FOOLHARDY ends with Tom Hardy
  • MULHOLLAND ends with Tom Holland
  • THANKS ends with Tom Hanks, read as "T. Hanks"

THANKS proved especially sneaky, since it looked like it belonged with the email sign-offs.

Difficulty rating

Thursday's puzzle was widely regarded as one of the tougher grids of the week. The overlapping sign-off words made the yellow, green and blue categories harder to separate than usual.

Some players solved the purple group by spotting unusual words such as AUTOCRUISE and MULHOLLAND, which don't fit naturally into any of the simpler categories. Once those were identified, the actor-name pattern became clearer.

Tips for solving Connections

Puzzle experts often recommend these strategies:

Look for the odd words first. Unusual entries such as AUTOCRUISE often signal a wordplay category, usually purple.

Beware of obvious groups. If more than four words seem to fit one category, it is likely a red herring designed to mislead.

Check word endings and beginnings. Purple categories frequently involve hidden words, prefixes or suffixes.

Solve by elimination. Players don't need to guess the final group, since the last four words automatically complete the puzzle.

Yesterday's answers

For players catching up, Wednesday's Connections No. 1214 answers were:

  • Yellow — Save for later: BANK, SQUIRREL, STASH, STORE
  • Green — Kinds of buns: CINNAMON, HAMBURGER, HOT DOG, STICKY
  • Blue — Greek numerical prefixes: DICHOTOMY, MONOLOGUE, TETRACYCLINE, TRIDENT
  • Purple — Best ___ Tony Awards: CHOREOGRAPHY, MUSICAL, ORCHESTRATIONS, PLAY

How Connections works

Connections, launched by The New York Times in 2023 and edited by Wyna Liu, presents players with 16 words to sort into four groups of four. Categories are color-coded by difficulty, from yellow (easiest) to green, blue and purple (hardest).

Players are allowed four mistakes before the game ends. The puzzle resets at midnight local time.

A new Connections puzzle, No. 1216, will be released on Friday, Oct. 9.

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