NYT Connections

is back with a fresh grid for Saturday, 7 June. If you’ve been scratching your head over today's set of words, you're not alone. The game is designed to challenge your vocabulary, lateral thinking, and pattern recognition skills. While some groups may be obvious, others can be surprisingly tricky. Whether you’re looking for a small push or a full breakdown, we’ve compiled a complete guide to today’s puzzle. Below you'll find thematic clues, complete answers, and an explanation of the logic behind each grouping—without spoiling it too early for those still solving.

Connections is a

word association puzzle

from the

New York Times

where players are given 16 seemingly unrelated words. The objective is to organise them into four groups of four, based on a hidden connection. These connections might relate to word categories, functions, or even puns. The game is well-loved for its blend of simplicity and subtle complexity, often luring players into overthinking what turns out to be a straightforward link. Each puzzle has one correct solution, and a limited number of incorrect guesses are allowed, which raises the stakes as the game progresses.

To begin, you’ll see 16 words arranged in a 4x4 grid. Your goal is to sort them into four sets of four, each sharing a common theme. Tap or click on four words you believe are related, and submit your guess. If you're correct, the group locks in. If not, you’ll receive a warning—and you're only allowed four errors before the puzzle ends. The puzzles increase in difficulty as you progress, and the colour-coded results reflect that: yellow is the easiest, followed by green, blue, and then purple as the trickiest.

Here are the general themes for each of these four groups in today’s puzzle:Yellow group – Types of precipitationBlue group – Classical musical instrumentsGreen group – Related to prison or incarcerationPurple group – Things you can operate or run

Yellow group: rain, snow, hail, sleetBlue group: cello, flute, drum, violinGreen group: cell, guard, sentence, wardenPurple group: business, marathon, programme, engine

The yellow group was fairly straightforward, covering common types of precipitation you might hear in a weather report. The blue group focused on orchestral instruments, each widely used in classical music. The green group revolved around prison-related terms, with a mix of personnel (guard, warden), locations (cell), and legal concepts (sentence). The purple group was the most abstract, consisting of words that describe things that can be “run”—such as a business, a computer programme, a marathon, or an engine. The key to solving this one was recognising the metaphorical use of the word “run” in different contexts.