NYT Word Games Guide: Wordle, Connections, Strands, Spelling Bee and More

The New York Times Word Game Empire

What started with a single viral word puzzle has grown into the most dominant collection of word games on the internet. The New York Times now operates five distinct word games that collectively attract tens of millions of daily players. Whether you’re a casual puzzle solver or a competitive word game enthusiast, understanding how each game works — and how the skills transfer between them — will make you better at all of them.

Wordle: The Game That Started It All

Created by Josh Wardle in 2021 and acquired by the NYT in early 2022, Wordle gives you six attempts to guess a five-letter word. After each guess, letters turn green (correct position), yellow (correct letter, wrong position), or gray (not in the word). One puzzle per day, everyone gets the same word, and you can share your results without spoilers using colored emoji grids.

Key strategy: Start with a word heavy in common letters (SLATE, CRANE, or TRACE are popular choices). Your second guess should test new letters while incorporating any green or yellow hints. Most experienced players solve in 3-4 guesses consistently. For deeper strategies, check our complete Wordle strategy guide.

Why it works: Wordle’s genius is its constraint. One puzzle per day means everyone plays the same puzzle and can discuss it without one person being “ahead.” The shareable grid creates natural social media engagement without spoiling the answer.

Connections: Pattern Recognition Meets Vocabulary

Connections presents 16 words and asks you to sort them into four groups of four. Each group shares a hidden connection — maybe they’re all types of pasta, or they all precede the word “house,” or they’re all words that can follow “sun.” The catch: the groups are color-coded by difficulty (yellow = easiest, purple = hardest), and you only get four mistakes before the game ends.

Key strategy: Start by looking for the easiest (yellow) group first. Scan all 16 words before guessing — look for obvious categories like “things that are red” or “words ending in -tion.” The purple group is intentionally tricky, often involving wordplay, double meanings, or cultural references. If you’re unsure, save the hardest group for last.

Why it works: Connections rewards lateral thinking and cultural knowledge rather than pure vocabulary. A word like “MERCURY” might belong in a “planets” group, a “elements” group, or a “Freddie” group (Mercury being Freddie Mercury’s surname). The misdirection is what makes it addictive.

Strands: The Hidden Theme Puzzle

Strands is a word search with a twist. You’re given a grid of letters and must find themed words by connecting adjacent letters (including diagonals). Every letter in the grid belongs to exactly one word, and all the words relate to a single theme revealed by a clue at the top. There’s also a special “spangram” — a theme word that spans the entire grid from one side to the other.

Key strategy: Read the clue carefully — it’s often a pun or play on words that hints at the theme. Find the spangram first if you can, as it reveals the theme and makes finding other words easier. If you’re stuck, use the hint button (earned by finding non-theme words) to highlight a letter from an unfound word.

Why it works: Strands combines word search mechanics with thematic deduction. You’re not just finding words — you’re figuring out what connects them. The constraint that every letter must be used means there’s exactly one correct solution, eliminating ambiguity.

Spelling Bee: The Vocabulary Marathon

Spelling Bee gives you seven letters arranged in a honeycomb pattern. Your goal is to make as many words as possible (minimum 4 letters) using those letters, and every word must include the center letter. Letters can be reused. The scoring scales from “Beginner” through “Amazing” to “Queen Bee” (finding every possible word).

Key strategy: Start with the center letter and systematically pair it with each other letter. Look for common prefixes and suffixes. Don’t forget that letters can repeat — TATTING is valid if T and I are available. The pangram (using all 7 letters) is worth bonus points and there’s always at least one. Words must be at least 4 letters, so skip the 3-letter combinations.

Why it works: Spelling Bee is the most open-ended NYT word game. There’s no single solution — just a progressively more complete word list to discover. Reaching “Queen Bee” status is genuinely difficult and satisfying.

Crossplay: The Newest Addition (February 2026)

The NYT’s newest word game, launched in February 2026, Crossplay is a competitive multiplayer word game where players take turns building a shared crossword grid in real-time. Each player draws letter tiles and must place a valid word on the grid that connects to existing words, similar to Scrabble but with a simplified scoring system and timed turns.

Key strategy: Speed matters — you’re on a timer for each turn. Having a mental library of short, flexible words (especially two-letter words) helps you play quickly in tight board positions. The scoring rewards longer words but penalizes slow play, so finding a good 4-letter word quickly often beats spending 30 seconds on a 6-letter word.

Why it works: Crossplay fills the competitive multiplayer gap that the other NYT games don’t address. It’s essentially Scrabble optimized for quick mobile play sessions, which makes it accessible to players who find full Scrabble games too long.

How Skills Transfer Between Games

The beautiful thing about playing multiple NYT word games is that the skills reinforce each other:

Wordle → Spelling Bee: The letter-elimination thinking from Wordle helps you systematically work through letter combinations in Spelling Bee.

Connections → Strands: The pattern recognition from Connections directly helps with identifying Strands themes.

Spelling Bee → Scrabble/Crossplay: The vocabulary expansion from daily Spelling Bee play improves your word knowledge for competitive games.

All games → Vocabulary: Every NYT word game exposes you to words you might not encounter in daily life. Players who do Spelling Bee daily report learning 5-10 new words per week, which directly improves performance across all word games.

Tips for Daily Play

Play the games in order of difficulty for you personally. Most players find Wordle the quickest (2-5 minutes), followed by Connections (5-10 minutes), Strands (10-15 minutes), and Spelling Bee (unlimited, but 15-30 minutes for most). Crossplay depends on opponent availability.

All NYT word games reset at midnight Eastern Time. Many dedicated players have a morning routine of completing all five games with their coffee — it’s a 30-45 minute brain workout that genuinely improves cognitive function over time.

Want to sharpen your word-finding skills for these games? Our Word Unscrambler and Wordle Solver are perfect practice tools for building the vocabulary and pattern recognition these games demand.