NYT ‘Connections’ September 22: Clues and Answers for Game #469

As Sunday approaches, so too does another game of Connections.

Since its The New York Times debut in June 2023, Connections has rapidly gained popularity as an online sensation. The game challenges players with a combination of techniques like homophones and wordplay, making the puzzles consistently engaging and rarely straightforward. It has now become the newspaper’s second-most played game, following the word puzzle Wordle.

In this guide, we’ll explain how to play Connections, offer helpful tips, and provide clues to assist in solving Sunday’s puzzle.

Answers for today’s puzzle can be found toward the end of the article, so proceed carefully.

How to Play ‘Connections’

Connections challenges players to categorize 16 words into four groups based on their associations.

Each group is color-coded to reflect its difficulty: Yellow for the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. The puzzles are rarely straightforward, often featuring homophones, wordplay, and other techniques to keep players challenged. If players get stuck, they can use the shuffle button to rearrange the words on the screen.

Wyna Liu, a crossword editor at the Times who developed Connections, recently shared her tips for playing the game with Newsweek.

“My best piece of advice is to wait as long as you can before guessing,” she said.

“You may see the board and have completely identified the category, seeing five words that could belong in that category,” she continued. “Don’t try to guess the four words in that category because even though you know what the fifth member is, you won’t know which of the four it might not be,” which would ultimately waste a turn.

“Don’t do what I do, which is ‘rage solve,'” Liu added.