The New York Times Connections
The New York Times Connections

Thursday's edition of The New York Times' popular word-grouping game served up a deceptively gentle-looking puzzle that ultimately hinged on a clever wordplay trap, catching out players who assumed the grid would be a straightforward solve from start to finish.

Connections puzzle number 1103 for June 18, 2026, mixed a workout class lineup with a trio of history's most recognized peace activists, then closed with a wordplay trap that tripped up plenty of players.

How the Game Works

The New York Times Connections game asks players to sort sixteen words into four hidden groups of four. Categories run from yellow, the easiest, through green and blue, and finally purple, which is almost always built on a twist rather than a straightforward theme. Players get four mistakes before the puzzle ends, and the daily reset happens at midnight in each player's own time zone.

Connections by The New York Times is a word game created by Wyna Liu. This daily puzzle challenges players to sort a set of 16 words into groups of four. To solve it, players must identify the hidden connections among the words and determine which words belong together in a common category. The game also provides a "one away..." hint whenever a player selects three of the four correct words for a particular group.

Thursday's Four Categories

The themes and answers for the June 18, 2026, NYT Connections puzzle were as follows:

Yellow Group: Fitness Class Types — AEROBICS, BARRE, BOOTCAMP, PILATES.

Green Group: Demeanor — ATTITUDE, BEARING, CARRIAGE, PRESENCE.

Blue Group: Peace Activists — GANDHI, KING, MANDELA, TUTU.

Purple Group: Tools Minus Last Two Letters — HAMM, JIGS, PLIE, WREN.

Breaking Down the Categories

The yellow group focused on popular fitness class formats, making it one of the easiest categories to identify in Thursday's grid. AEROBICS, BARRE, BOOTCAMP, and PILATES are all widely recognized workout formats found in gyms and studios across the country, and the category's straightforward framing made it an accessible entry point for most solvers.

Players needed to recognize words related to demeanor and personal bearing to successfully complete the green category. ATTITUDE, BEARING, CARRIAGE, and PRESENCE each describe an outward manner or way of carrying oneself — a category that required slightly more careful reading, since several of these words can carry multiple meanings depending on context. CARRIAGE, for instance, could plausibly evoke a horse-drawn vehicle before solvers recognized its secondary meaning relating to posture and bearing.

The blue category offered a clear historical theme once identified. One of the groups was "Peace Activists," bringing together GANDHI, KING, MANDELA, and TUTU — four of the most widely recognized figures associated with nonviolent resistance and civil rights movements across the 20th century. Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, and Desmond Tutu each became global symbols of peaceful activism in their respective countries and causes, making this category a relatively gettable one for players with a baseline familiarity with modern history.

The Purple Category's Wordplay Twist

As is typical for Connections puzzles, the purple category delivered the day's most challenging wrinkle. The purple category featured tool names with their final two letters removed, delivering the puzzle's most creative challenge.

The trick required players to mentally add back two letters to each word in order to recognize the underlying tool. HAMM and JIGS were in the same group, which, once decoded, revealed themselves as HAMMER (with the final "ER" removed) and JIGSAW (with the final "AW" removed). The remaining two entries in the category, PLIE and WREN, followed the same logic, transforming into PLIERS and WRENCH once their missing letters were restored — though the specific letters needed to complete each word varied, adding to the puzzle's misdirection.

One puzzle-solving outlet described the overall structure of Thursday's grid as deceptively approachable. "Thursday's puzzle has the kind of grid that looks gentle right up until the purple category turns the board upside down," the outlet noted in its breakdown of the day's solution.

Tips for Future Puzzles

Connections veterans continue to recommend a consistent set of strategies for tackling the daily grid, regardless of how the categories are ultimately structured. Players should start with the easiest connections, which are usually the most straightforward categories, and scan for synonyms or similar items, since some connections are made up of obvious relationships like synonyms, homophones, or word forms.

Once an easier group has been solved, those words are removed from the grid, and the remaining words may seem less random and offer clues to the other groups. Players are advised to narrow down tricky groups by focusing on what's left and seeing if the remaining words share more abstract traits.

A key pitfall to watch for is misleading overlaps, since some words may seem to fit into multiple categories — for example, a word like "crash" could plausibly fit into both "car accidents" and "loud noises." Players are encouraged to try multiple ideas, but should keep in mind they only have four mistakes available before the puzzle locks them out. Many groups have more abstract relationships, such as "things that spin" or "words with double meanings," which often only become apparent after the more obvious categories have been cleared.

The Game's Rapid Rise in Popularity

Connections has become one of the most consistently popular offerings in the Times' expanding games portfolio since its debut. Created by The New York Times' puzzle editor Wyna Liu, the beta version of the game was released in June 2023 and was included in The New York Times Games app only two months after launch. Its rise was meteoric, rapidly becoming the second-most-played game published by the Times, trailing only Wordle.

The engaging word game challenges players to group words based on common themes that can span everything from book titles to software to country names, with seemingly endless possibilities for how categories can be constructed. The game frequently produces unexpected connections between words players never thought possible.

Where to Find More Puzzle Help

The New York Times Games collection also features several other puzzles, including Wordle, Strands, Pips, and Sudoku. The platform additionally offers subscription-based games, including various NYT Crosswords, Letter Boxed, Tiles, and more, giving puzzle enthusiasts a broad menu of daily challenges beyond Connections alone.

For players who came up short on Thursday's puzzle or simply want to track their progress against the broader Connections community, the game's daily reset at midnight local time means a fresh sixteen-word grid — and a brand-new set of hidden categories — will be waiting first thing Friday morning.

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