You’re stuck on today’s Connections puzzle. You’ve shuffled the board three times, you’re convinced GO and START belong together, and you’ve got one mistake left. You came here for a lifeline. You’re in the right place.
This article covers the connections hint Forbes and other top outlets are running today for NYT Connections #1113, plus a full breakdown of the answers if you need them. Gentle hints come first so you can still feel the satisfaction of solving it yourself, with full spoilers available further down.
What Is the NYT Connections Game?
Connections is a daily category-matching puzzle developed and published by The New York Times. It was released on June 12, 2023, during its beta phase, and has grown to become the second-most-played game published by The New York Times, behind only Wordle. The puzzles are written by editor Wyna Liu.
The format is simple: the goal is to divide a grid of sixteen terms into four groups of four, such that the terms in each group belong to a specific category.
When a player successfully identifies a group, its category is revealed along with a color-coded difficulty level. Categories are rated yellow, green, blue, or purple, with yellow being the most straightforward and purple being the most difficult.
What makes it genuinely tricky is the red herring game. Red herrings frequently occur, with groups of four which seemingly belong together but are actually sorted into different categories based on a more subtle connection with other words.
Today’s Connections Hint (Forbes Style) for June 28, 2026
Major publications like Forbes, Tom’s Guide, and Parade all publish daily hints for Connections #1113. Here’s what today’s puzzle looks like before any spoilers.
Today’s puzzle is all about double meanings and kick offs. That one-line summary is your best friend. At least one category will trick you into thinking words mean one thing when they actually connect under a completely different meaning.
The Connections Companion rates this puzzle’s difficulty at 1.8 out of 5, so today sits on the easier side compared to recent puzzles. That said, easy on paper doesn’t always mean easy in practice.
Yellow Category Hint (Easiest)
Think about synonyms. Think about the cream of the crop. You’re looking for four words that all mean high quality.
Green Category Hint
Think about signals to commence. These words all mean the same thing, and that thing is getting something going.
Blue Category Hint
Think about accessories for a guitarist. If you’ve ever browsed a music shop, this one should click fast. Think about the physical things you’d grab off a peg board.
Purple Category Hint (Hardest)
This is the one that catches people out. The connection involves a shared object. The words themselves are not the object. Think of games, organizations, and hobbies. They are all commonly paired with the same type of item.
Today’s Connections Answers: June 28, 2026 (#1113)
Full spoilers below. Scroll past the dashes if you want to keep guessing.
The four answers for Connections #1113 on Sunday, June 28, 2026 are:
- HIGH-QUALITY (Yellow): CHOICE, FINE, PRIME, SELECT
- SIGNALS TO COMMENCE (Green): BEGIN, GO, NOW, START
- ACCESSORIES FOR A GUITARIST (Blue): CAPO, PICK, SLIDE, STRAP
- THEY HAVE BOARDS (Purple): CHESS, CORPORATION, DARTS, SURFER
Breaking Down Today’s Tricky Spots
The yellow and green categories were the ones most likely to cause mix-ups today. Words like SELECT, CHOICE, GO, and START all sit in a zone where they feel like they could group together, especially if you’re thinking about decision-making or gaming vocabulary.
At first glance, there might seem to be a category dealing with synonyms for making a decision given that SELECT and CHOICE were in play. But paired with FINE and PRIME, the high-quality angle clicked into place for yellow. The green category came down to synonyms for beginning: BEGIN, GO, NOW, START.
The purple category is the one that trips people up the most. CHESS, CORPORATION, DARTS, and SURFER don’t seem related at all on the surface. The trick is you’re not looking at what these things are, you’re looking at what they all have. They all have boards. A chess board. A corporate board. A dartboard. A surfboard. Classic Connections misdirection.
How to Get Better at NYT Connections
If you’re searching for a connection hint today, you’ll probably be back tomorrow. Here’s how to need them less over time.
Start With Yellow, But Don’t Assume It’s Obvious
Yellow is supposed to be easy, but overconfidence kills streaks. NYT Connections’ current editor Wyna Liu says the blue and green groups are medium-difficult, often based on trivia-style questions like FILE EXTENSIONS or SYNONYMS FOR specific concepts. Yellow is clean and direct, but it’s worth scanning the whole board before committing.
Watch Out for Semantic Traps
There’s actual cognitive science behind why this game is so hard to put down. Semantic priming can help us quickly recognize related concepts, but it can also distract us from the puzzle’s solution. A puzzle might include words like credit, discover, and visa. These words are associated since Discover and Visa are types of credit cards, but in the actual game they appear in different categories requiring players to access a completely different meaning.
The takeaway: your first instinct is often right, and also often wrong.
Use the Shuffle Button
Many players don’t use the Shuffle button, thinking it is useless. It does one thing extremely well though: it gives a fresh perspective. With shuffling, some words may fall next to each other, giving a new outlook on their connection.
Think About Spelling, Not Just Meaning
Players who find themselves stuck on a blue or purple puzzle may want to focus less on the meaning of the presented word and more on the spelling, or think about what words or letters can be added to form new meanings. The purple category in particular often hides wordplay: prefixes, suffixes, hidden words inside words, or phrases that only work when you imagine adding something before or after.
You Get Four Mistakes. Use Them Wisely
You have a total of four chances to get all the categories correctly while playing the Connections game. Most veteran players recommend confirming your most confident group first and saving your guesses for the categories you’re less sure about. Burning through mistakes trying to crack purple first is the fastest way to end a streak.
The Connections Sports Edition
Worth mentioning if you haven’t tried it: there’s a whole separate daily puzzle for sports fans.
On September 24, 2024, The Athletic, in partnership with The New York Times Games, launched a sports edition of Connections in beta. The sports edition features the same gameplay as the regular version, with each grouping being sports-themed. The game was officially launched on February 9, 2025, to coincide with Super Bowl LIX.
Games are written by The Athletic’s managing editor for news, Mark Cooper, who became the site’s puzzle editor with the launch. Unlike the original version, which he described as a word game, the sports edition relies more on a trivia component, with Cooper trying to include one trivia-based category in each game. Cooper also tries to have the purple category feature wordplay like the original.
FAQ
What is the Connections hint Forbes covers today?
Forbes, like most major publications, publishes a daily Connections hint article covering that day’s NYT puzzle. For June 28, 2026 (#1113), the four categories are HIGH-QUALITY (yellow), SIGNALS TO COMMENCE (green), ACCESSORIES FOR A GUITARIST (blue), and THEY HAVE BOARDS (purple).
Where can I find Forbes Connections hints every day?
Forbes publishes Connections hints and answers daily on their gaming and lifestyle section. You can also find them on Tom’s Guide, Parade, NME, and here at RushGuides for a quick daily reference.
How many mistakes can you make in NYT Connections?
You are allowed only four mistakes before it’s game over. Each wrong guess counts as one mistake regardless of how many words in your grouping were correct.
Is Connections harder than Wordle?
The general consensus is that Connections is harder than Wordle. Wordle narrows to one word with clear letter feedback; Connections requires you to hold multiple competing interpretations of 16 words simultaneously and resist the deliberate misdirection built into every puzzle.
Who created NYT Connections?
The puzzles are written by editor Wyna Liu, who is also a crossword editor at The New York Times. Liu cited cartoonist Robert Leighton as an inspiration for lateral and visual word play.
What does “One Away” mean in Connections?
If the submitted answer is incorrect and shows “One Away,” you are close and missing out on one word. It means three of your four words are correct, but one belongs somewhere else.
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