The New York Times launched Connections in 2023 following the extraordinary success the newspaper achieved with Wordle, a word-based game it purchased from New York-based software developer Josh Wardle in January 2022.

After being released, Connections quickly grew a dedicated following across the English-speaking world.

How to Play ‘Connections’

Each day, Connections players are presented with 16 words, which they are tasked with dividing into four categories based around common characteristics.

The four categories are all color-coded to show their difficulty, with yellow being the easiest then green, blue and purple. Players choose four words at a time, and if they are connected, constituting one of the four categories, they light up and are removed from the board. At this point, their color is also revealed, showing how difficult the quiz setters expected that set of connections to be.

If a player guesses incorrect groups of words four times, the game ends, and they are defeated. There is no time limit for the puzzle.

At any point, the player can shuffle the board resulting in the 16 words being randomly repositioned.

According to Connections editor Wyna Liu, if you have five cards that all seem to belong in the same category, your best move may well be to try to figure out a different category, then come back to the original one once some of the words are eliminated.

Liu said: “Doing so might take one of those extra cards out of contention, or at least remove a few cards from the board, making other categories easier to see.”

The answers for Sunday’s Connections puzzle will be revealed at the end of this article, so please scroll down with caution if you want to work them out yourself.

‘Connections’ #616 Clues for Sunday, February 16

Newsweek has some hints to help you figure out today’s Connections categories.

Yellow: A small quantity.

Green: Two to tango.

Blue: On a string.

Purple: Man’s best friend.

‘Connections’ #616 Answers for Sunday, February 16

Yellow Category: GLIMMER

Yellow Words: HINT, SUGGESTION, TOUCH, TRACE

Green Category: CORRESPOND WELL WITH

Green Words: COMPLEMENT, FIT, MATCH, SUIT

Blue Category: FAMOUS PUPPETS

Blue Words: LAMB CHOP, OSCAR, PUNCH, TRIUMPH

Purple Category: DOG BREEDS MINUS “ER” SOUND

Purple Words: BOX, POINT, RETRIEVE, SET

Well that was a tough one! Did you figure it out? If so congratulations, but please don’t worry if not. One of the best things about Connections is seeing if you can improve your result over time, and practice really does help make perfect.

The next Connections puzzle will be published by The New York Times on Monday and Newsweek will of course be back to offer another round of hints and tips to help you figure out the answer.