NYT ‘Connections’ September 14: Answers, Clues for Game #461

It’s the weekend—time to relax with a new Connections puzzle.

Connections is a word game launched by The New York Times in June 2023 following on from the success of Wordle, a separate word game from the newspaper created by software engineer Josh Wardle and released in 2021.

Connections developer and New York Times crossword editor Wyna Liu recently spoke with Newsweek about its popularity.

“The response has been really incredible and overwhelming, and unexpected,” Liu said. “It’s exciting that something I care very deeply about is resonating with people.”

The answers for Saturday’s Connections game will be revealed at the end of this article, so please proceed carefully if you want to work them out yourself.

How to Play Connections

If you’ve never played Connections before, it’s easy to get the hang of. You’ll be given a set of 16 words, which must be split into four groups of four—based on a common theme—and put into categories.

For example, in Friday’s puzzle, one of the categories was “Featured in Jack and the Beanstalk,” and the words associated with that category were “beans,” “cow,” “giant” and “Jack.”

The categories range in difficulty, with yellow being the easiest and purple being the most difficult. Green and blue categories are considered medium difficulty.

Players must choose the words they think belong together and press “Submit.” If they are correct, they will flash in the category color and disappear from the board. If they are incorrect, they will remain gray in color and stay on the grid.

After four incorrect guesses, players lose the game. That being said, there is no time limit—so you can take as long as you need.

If you’re feeling stuck, clicking the “Shuffle” button might just give you the refresh you need to answer correctly.