The New York Times Connections
The New York Times Connections

NEW YORK — Saturday's edition of The New York Times' Connections puzzle should feel friendlier than recent grids, but a cluster of shape-related words and a purple group with a punch could still trip up careless players.

Puzzle No. 1217, released for Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026, asks players to sort 16 words into four hidden groups of four. The Times' Connections Companion rated the puzzle's difficulty at 2 out of 5, making it easier than Friday's puzzle.

Below are hints arranged from gentle to more revealing, strategy tips for avoiding today's traps and, for those who need them, the full answers.

Spoiler warning: The answers to today's Connections puzzle appear later in this article. Read only as far as you need.

How Connections works

Connections gives players a grid of 16 words and asks them to find four groups of four that share a common link. Players can make up to four mistakes before the game ends.

Each group is color-coded by difficulty. Yellow is typically the most straightforward, followed by green and blue, with purple usually the trickiest and often built on wordplay.

The Times launched Connections in June 2023, and it has become one of the most popular titles in its games lineup alongside Wordle and the crossword. Its appeal lies in red herrings, words that appear to fit more than one category but belong to only one.

A new puzzle is released at midnight local time.

Today's 16 words

Saturday's grid includes the following words:

OUTLINE, SHADOW, FEED, FIGURE, DRAFT, IMAGINE, KICK, NOTIFICATIONS, GATHER, NOTES, UN, MESSAGES, BEAT, SUPPOSE, PROFILE, THESIS

Hints for Connections No. 1217

For players who want to keep solving on their own, here are hints for each group.

  • Yellow: Think about the steps you take before turning in a school essay.
  • Green: Think of words that mean "I think so."
  • Blue: Think about the tabs you tap through on your favorite social app.
  • Purple: Each word can come before the same word, a sport that involves throwing punches.

More revealing hints

If you still need help, here is one word from each group:

  • Yellow: THESIS
  • Green: SUPPOSE
  • Blue: FEED
  • Purple: SHADOW

Strategy tips for today's puzzle

Watch out for shapes. Today's biggest red herring is a set of words that can describe forms or silhouettes. OUTLINE, PROFILE, SHADOW and FIGURE could all describe the shape of a person or object, making them look like a natural group. No such category exists, and each of those words belongs somewhere else.

Separate writing from social media. Several words could fit either an essay or an online account. DRAFT and NOTES could describe parts of a phone or messaging app, while PROFILE could describe a short written biography. Decide whether each word is about building a paper or navigating an app before locking in a group.

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Spot the oddball. The two-letter entry UN stands out immediately. Short fragments in Connections usually signal a wordplay category, where each word combines with another word or prefix. Identifying what UN can attach to is the fastest route to cracking the purple group.

Start with the clearest group. The words meaning "presume" are fairly self-contained, which makes the green group a good place to start and reduces the number of words left to sort.

Use the shuffle button. Rearranging the grid can break up visual clusters, like today's shape words, that lead to false connections.

Final warning: The answers are below

If you want to keep trying, stop reading here.

Today's Connections answers

Here are the solutions for Connections No. 1217 for Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026:

  • Yellow — Useful when writing a paper: DRAFT, NOTES, OUTLINE, THESIS
  • Green — Presume: FIGURE, GATHER, IMAGINE, SUPPOSE
  • Blue — Social media sections: FEED, MESSAGES, NOTIFICATIONS, PROFILE
  • Purple — ___ boxing: BEAT, KICK, SHADOW, UN

Breaking down the groups

The yellow group covers the building blocks of an academic paper. A writer typically develops a THESIS, gathers NOTES, creates an OUTLINE and writes a DRAFT before producing a final version. OUTLINE is likely the word most players hesitate over, since it also fits the shape red herring.

The green group gathers verbs meaning to assume or presume. To FIGURE, GATHER, IMAGINE or SUPPOSE something is to believe it without being certain. GATHER may be the trickiest of the four, since it more commonly means to collect.

The blue group lists sections common to social media platforms. Users scroll through a FEED, check MESSAGES and NOTIFICATIONS and update their PROFILE. PROFILE's double meaning as a side-view silhouette makes it a natural decoy.

The purple group rewards players who think about word combinations. BEATBOXING is a vocal music technique, KICKBOXING is a combat sport, SHADOWBOXING is a training exercise in which fighters punch at the air, and UNBOXING is the popular online trend of filming the opening of new products. Including UNBOXING, which has nothing to do with fighting, is a classic purple-group twist.

Yesterday's answers

For players catching up, here are the groups from Friday, Oct. 9, puzzle No. 1216:

  • Yellow — Decisive victory: BLOWOUT, ROMP, ROUT, SWEEP
  • Green — Controlled by a TV remote: CHANNEL, INPUT, POWER, VOLUME
  • Blue — Features of a sports show: HIGHLIGHTS, RECAP, SCORES, STATS
  • Purple — Air ___: CONDITIONER, GUITAR, KISS, QUOTES

Friday's puzzle also featured a misleading cluster, with BLOWOUT, HIGHLIGHTS and CONDITIONER suggesting a hair-salon theme that did not exist.

Keep your streak going

Connections tends to reward patience. Pausing before submitting a group, checking whether any word could fit elsewhere and saving uncertain guesses for last can help players avoid costly mistakes.

With a lower difficulty rating, Saturday's puzzle may be a good opportunity for players to attempt a "reverse rainbow," solving the purple group first and the yellow group last without any errors.

A new Connections puzzle will be available at midnight local time, giving players another chance to test their skills on Sunday.

Note: There are no quotes in this piece. The answers and the 2-out-of-5 difficulty rating match several same-day sources.

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