NYT Connections Answer

Another day, another challenge from Wyna Liu! Today’s puzzle offers a delightful mix of tech-savviness, sports knowledge, and a classic wordplay category that might trip you up if you aren't careful.

If you're looking for the NYT Connections hint or the full answer for 2026-04-14, you've come to the right place. Let’s break down the April 14, 2026, puzzle and see how these sixteen words fit together.

Today's Difficulty

I’d rate today’s puzzle a 3 out of 5. While the browser and boxing categories are fairly straightforward, the "Tilt" category includes a word that has multiple meanings, which might lead you down the wrong path. The purple category, as always, requires a bit of lateral thinking.

Yellow Category: TILT

These words all describe something that isn't sitting perfectly upright.

• The Hint: Think about a ship leaning to one side or a roof with an angle.
• The Words: LEAN, LIST, PITCH, TIP

Why they fit: Most of these are everyday synonyms for being slanted. LEAN, TIP, and PITCH are very common. However, LIST is the "trick" word here; while we usually think of it as a series of items written down, in a nautical sense, to "list" is to tilt to one side.

Green Category: THINGS STORED BY A BROWSER

This category is for the tech-minded players. If you spend a lot of time on Chrome, Safari, or Firefox, this should be a breeze.

• The Hint: What does your computer remember about your internet habits?
• The Words: BOOKMARK, CACHE, COOKIE, HISTORY

Why they fit: Your web browser keeps track of your HISTORY (the sites you’ve visited), BOOKMARKs (the sites you’ve saved), COOKIEs (data used to identify you), and CACHE (stored files to help pages load faster).

Blue Category: BOXING TERMS

Step into the squared circle for this one! These four words are foundational to the "sweet science."

• The Hint: What would you see or hear during a prize fight?
• The Words: BELL, GLOVES, RING, ROUND

Why they fit: A boxing match takes place in a RING, divided into time segments called ROUNDs. The athletes wear GLOVES, and each segment starts and ends with the sound of a BELL.

Purple Category: FREE___

The most difficult category usually involves a missing word that completes a phrase or a compound word.

• The Hint: Add a common four-letter word that means "at no cost" to the beginning of these words.
• The Words: LANCE, MASON, STYLE, WAY

Why they fit: When you add the word "FREE" to the front of these, you get four common terms:

• Freelance: Working independently.
• Freemason: A member of a specific fraternal organization.
• Freestyle: A type of competition or performance without fixed rules.
• Freeway: A major highway.

Summary of the Answer for 2026-04-14

• TILT: LEAN, LIST, PITCH, TIP
• THINGS STORED BY A BROWSER: BOOKMARK, CACHE, COOKIE, HISTORY
• BOXING TERMS: BELL, GLOVES, RING, ROUND
• FREE___: LANCE, MASON, STYLE, WAY

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you play NYT Connections? In Connections, you are given 16 words and must group them into four sets of four based on a common theme. Each group is color-coded by difficulty: Yellow (easiest), Green, Blue, and Purple (trickiest). You have four lives; if you make four mistakes, the game ends.

When does NYT Connections reset? The puzzle resets daily at midnight local time. If you are a night owl, you can often find the next day's puzzle right as the clock strikes twelve!

Can there be more than one correct answer? While some words might seem to fit into multiple categories (like "List" fitting into "Browser" if you think of a reading list), there is only one unique solution where every word belongs to exactly one category.

What is the "Purple Category" known for? The Purple category is famous for being the most abstract. It often involves wordplay, such as words that share a prefix/suffix, homophones, or words that follow a specific linguistic pattern rather than a shared definition.