The New York Times Connections
The New York Times Connections

NEW YORK — Wednesday's New York Times Connections puzzle, No. 1235, took players from romance to the surface of Mars. A homophone category was the final twist.

Hints come first for players who want a nudge. The full answers follow further down.

How Connections works

Connections shows a grid of 16 words. Players sort them into four groups of four that share a common thread. Each group has a color that signals its difficulty:

Yellow: the most straightforward Green: moderate Blue: harder Purple: the trickiest, often built on wordplay

Players can make four mistakes before the game ends. If a guess gets three of the four words right, the game shows a "One away" message.

Wednesday's 16 words

The grid for Oct. 28, 2026:

ATTRACTION, CRUSH, FEELINGS, INTEREST, ATTACHMENT, BODY, SIGNATURE, SUBJECT, CURIOSITY, OPPORTUNITY, PERSEVERANCE, SPIRIT, COARSE, RODE, ROUT, WEIGH

Hints for each group

Yellow: Words for having a soft spot for someone. Green: Things you'll find in your inbox. Blue: Think of robotic explorers on the Red Planet. Purple: Say these out loud. They sound like ways of getting from one place to another.

TechRadar's Johnny Dee offered his own hints, including "Love is in the air" for yellow, "Messaging elements" for green and "Red planet vehicles" for blue. For purple, his hint was "Sounds like how you'd follow these."

The red herrings

Several words fit more than one group.

ATTACHMENT was the biggest trap. It can describe an emotional bond, which made it a natural fit with the romance group. Its real home was with the email terms.

INTEREST and CURIOSITY could also seem interchangeable, since both describe a desire to learn about something. INTEREST belonged with the romantic feelings and CURIOSITY with the space vehicles.

SPIRIT and FEELINGS might suggest emotions or moods. Solvers who knew their NASA history would have spotted SPIRIT as one of the Mars rovers.

The purple group was hard to see, because COARSE, RODE, ROUT and WEIGH have no obvious link on paper. The connection only appears when they are said aloud.

Dee rated the puzzle easy. He wrote that the email group was "much easier to link," and added: "Congratulations if you got NASA MARS ROVERS correct."

Today's Connections answers

Yellow — ROMANTIC INTEREST: ATTRACTION, CRUSH, FEELINGS, INTEREST

Each describes being drawn to someone romantically.

Green — PARTS OF AN EMAIL: ATTACHMENT, BODY, SIGNATURE, SUBJECT

All are standard parts of an email: the subject line, the body text, the sign-off signature and attached files.

Blue — NASA MARS ROVERS: CURIOSITY, OPPORTUNITY, PERSEVERANCE, SPIRIT

All four are robotic rovers that NASA sent to explore Mars. Spirit and Opportunity landed in 2004, Curiosity in 2012 and Perseverance in 2021.

Purple — HOMOPHONES OF PATHS: COARSE, RODE, ROUT, WEIGH

Each sounds like a word for a path or route:

COARSE sounds like "course." RODE sounds like "road." ROUT sounds like "route." WEIGH sounds like "way."

Solving tips

Regular Connections players often use a few strategies:

Watch for words with double meanings. ATTACHMENT was Wednesday's classic decoy, fitting both emotions and email. Say the words out loud. Purple groups often depend on how words sound rather than how they're spelled. Use your mistakes wisely. A "One away" message is useful information. Swap one word at a time instead of starting over. Shuffle the board. The shuffle button can break up visual patterns and reveal new links.

On Wednesday, solving the Mars rovers early would have cleared CURIOSITY and SPIRIT from the board, making the romance group easier to sort.

Other New York Times games

Connections is part of the Times' daily lineup alongside Wordle, Strands, Spelling Bee and The Mini Crossword. The Times also publishes Connections: Sports Edition, a separate puzzle built around athletes, teams and sports terms.

The Wordle answer for Wednesday, Oct. 28, was GRIST.

A new Connections puzzle is released every day at midnight local time.