The New York Times released a new edition of its popular word game, Connections, on September 23, 2026. The puzzle featured 17 words that players had to group into four categories. The words included familiar terms like PAINT, PHONE, and SUNGLASSES, as well as more technical or niche terms like CAPTCHA, BITCOIN, and COOKIE CONSENT. To help players, the game provided four hints: "Don’t forget these…", "Online obstacles", "All packaged in tins", and "Final descriptions". Additional clues suggested the categories as "Things you grab before leaving the house", "Website hurdles", "Things that come in cans", and "Ending in synonyms for 'term'". These hints guide players to identify patterns or shared traits among the words. The correct groupings for the puzzle were: - **YELLOW**: Things you grab before leaving the house: KEYS, PHONE, SUNGLASSES, WALLET - **GREEN**: Website hurdles: AGE VERIFICATION, CAPTCHA, COOKIE CONSENT, PAYWALL - **BLUE**: Things that come in cans: CONDENSED MILK, PAINT, SHAVING CREAM, SPAM - **PURPLE**: Ending in synonyms for "term": BITCOIN, RECORD LABEL, RUB-A-DUB, SURINAME The article also included the answers to the previous day’s puzzle, released on September 22, 2026. That puzzle had categories such as "Demonstratives" and "Beverages with acute accents removed", with words like THAT, THESE, and CAFE grouped accordingly. Connections is a free word game available on the New York Times Games website. It challenges players to find connections between words based on shared characteristics. Each puzzle has four groups of varying difficulty, and players can make up to four mistakes without failing. The game does not require solving the final group to complete the puzzle, making it accessible and engaging for players of all skill levels.