Find the links between the words to win today’s Link game.
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The NYT Connections daily game airs live at midnight local time. Before today’s NYT Connections tips, here’s what you missed on Thursday:
Hello, Connectors! The weekend is almost here. Let’s make sure you get there with yours Connections streak intact.
The World Cup is finally underway and it’s been a long, long road to get there for many of the teams and fans. One Scotland fan traveled further than most. Craig Ferguson has spent the last few months walking from Los Angeles to Boston – all in a dress – to help raise awareness about mental health issues.
I’m sure there will be plenty of Scotland fans who will be happy to buy him a pint in our first game of the tournament against Haiti tomorrow. I won’t be there myself, unfortunately, but I have donated to the cause Ferguson is raising funds for, Scottish Action for Mental Health.
Play puzzles and games at Forbes
I follow his remarkable journey on social media. You can see a recent video diary of his trip here:
Before we begin, I usually write the weekend editions of this column in my newsletter, Hobby. However, I am taking this weekend off because I need a little break. Thanks for understanding!
I also want to mention the rad community we have on Discordwhere we talk Connectionsthe rest NYT games and all kinds of other things. They are a wonderful group of people. You are more than welcome to join us.
Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Friday June 12th coming soon. Let’s roll!
NYT Links – How to Play
Connections it’s free New York Times daily word game you can play on NYTthe Games website or app. If you have a NYT All Access or Games subscription, you can access Connections file, which includes every previous game.
Connections presents you with a grid of 16 words (sometimes phrases, symbols or numbers). The goal is to sort them into four groups of four. You don’t know how they hit together or what the class is for each team: that’s what you have to figure out.
There is only one correct solution and there are often red herrings. You can guess wrong three times. Fourth wrong guess, and it’s game over.
Each group is color coded. The yellow group is usually the easiest to gather, followed by blue, green and purple. Often, yellow and green groups have synonyms, blues have cultural references, and purples involve some sort of wordplay. But this is not a hard and fast rule. Be ready for curveballs – part of the fun Connections is in how the NYT shakes things up to keep you on your toes.
As with me Wordle and similar games, it’s easy to share results with your friends using an emoji-based grid. The game also tracks your progress.
Many players pride themselves on having long winning streaks or having a reverse rainbow – correctly guessing the purple, blue, green and yellow teams with this streak without mistakes. This adds an extra little challenge.
Today’s Connections NYT word list
Scroll slowly! I will first give you a list of today’s words and then a hint for each category. After that, I’ll reveal a word that goes to each group. Then I will tell you the names of the categories and the full answers will follow.
Today’s 16 words are…
- STUDENT YEARS
- HEAD OF BED
- QUOTE INCREDIBLE
- DAMN WORD
- COPY EDITING
- SPELL CHECK
- BANK BANK
- PACKED RAT
- CHARM BRACELET
- MURDER MYSTERY
- MIRROR SELFIE
- MOUTH GUARD
- PRIDE ROCK
- ECHO PARK
- DELTA AIRLINES
- HEX KEY
Today’s NYT Connections Tips
And the hints for today Connections groups are:
- 🟨 Yellow team — beware, there might be a witch around
- 🟩 Green team — many of one
- 🦶 Blue team — run it back
- 🟪 Purple team — often, once you start, you’ll go with the flow
NYT Links – One answer per group
Need some extra help?
Attention: we are starting to enter spoiler area.
Let’s take a look at one answer for each group.
So let’s go…
- 🟨 Yellow group — CHARM BRACELET
- 🟩 Green Team — PRIDE ROCK
- 🦶 Blue group — UNQUOTE QUOTE
- 🟪 Purple team — MOUTH GUARD
Today’s NYT Link Categories
Today’s Connections the teams are…
- 🟨 Yellow team — starting with spells
- 🟩 Green group — starting with animal group names
- 🦶 Blue team — starting with synonyms for “repeat”
- 🟪 Purple group — starting with parts of a river
Today’s NYT Connections Answers
Spoiler alert! Don’t scroll down the page until you’re ready to learn today’s Connections answers.
This is your last chance to look away.
This is your last warning!
Today’s Connections the answers are…
Connections Answers for June 12, 2026
Screenshot by Kris Holt
CURSE WORD and HEX KEY immediately cleared my yellows and led me to today’s trick. PRIDE and SCHOOL led me to the greens. COPY and ECHO did the same for the blues. and DELTA enlightened me as to the purple connection.
That gives me a 467th straight win to end the week.
How did you do this time? Here is my grid:
🨟🨟
🟩
🦟
🟪🟪
I don’t think we need the full Answers Explained column today, since everything seems obvious outside of maybe the greens. These refer to:
- MURDER MYSTERY > killing crows (love this one)
- PACK RAT > pack of wolves
- PRIDE ROCK > pride of lions
- SCHOOL DAYS > school of fish
That’s all there is for today Connections clues and answers. Once again, I’m taking this weekend off from writing the column – my weekend editions usually appear in my newsletter. In the meantime, you can hang out with me and a group of beautiful people playing Connections and other word games over on Discord. I’ll be back with you here on Monday!
PS I really like Teenage Joans. This Australian rock duo is never missing. I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve heard from them, and their recent single “Coming Up From Hell” is no different. I’ll always appreciate a music video with “Bohemian Rhapsody” references too:
PPS And remember just one thing during this World Cup…
Good day! Stay hydrated! Be kind to yourself and each other! Call someone you love!
Please follow my blog for more NYT links hints and help with other word games and even some video game news, information and analysis. It helps me a lot! Share this column with other people playing Connections will also be appreciated. You can (normally!) read my weekend editions of this column in my newsletter, Hobby.
