NYT Connections Hints Today: Check Answers and Clues, May 22, 2026

In The New York Times (NYT) Connections, each day players have a chance to connect 16 words with some commonality among the words and in multiple ways. Some of the commonalities may be as obvious as colors or animals but others may be much less obvious, for example, cultural references and phrases or sayings.

For example, here is what the NYT Connections puzzle will look like on May 22, 2026. In the May 22, 2026 NYT Connections puzzle, there are 16 different words that must be placed into 4 groups of 4 words based on some commonality. Typically, in each NYT Connections puzzle, words are grouped in a way that has an even distribution of difficulty level (easy, medium, hard).

In most cases, there is one or more groups in the NYT Connections puzzle that contain a grouping that is intended to be misleading. The most difficult part of the NYT Connections puzzle is discovering the subtle differences between the words and finding the groups that appear to be correct groups, but are not.

Check Out: What Is NYT Connections? The New York Times Puzzle Game Explained

Hints for NYT Connections May 22, 2026

Here are the hints for NYT Connections, May 22, 2026, Puzzle #1076. 

You have to club four words together that belong to the same category, which will get sorted into 5 colours: yellow, green, blue, and purple. 

You just need to be good at pattern recognition and the ability to sort them into the correct categories. 

YELLOW: REACH BACK OUT

GREEN: THE WAY THINGS ARE DONE

BLUE: PLACES WITH CONVEYOR BELTS

PURPLE: STARTING WITH NAME HOMOPHONES

Let us find out the answers to today’s NYT Connections! Let us see how many you were able to get right! 

NYT Connections Answers for May 22, 2026 (Friday)

Here are the solutions for NYT Connections Puzzle #1076 for May 22, 2026! 

Below you will see the four categories from today’s game, including the correct words that make up each set. Match these answers to your guesses of each category!

YELLOW: REACH BACK OUT (CHECK IN, FOLLOW UP, RECONNECT, TOUCH BASE)

GREEN: THE WAY THINGS ARE DONE (CONVENTION, CUSTOM, SOCIAL NORM, UNWRITTEN RULE)

BLUE: PLACES WITH CONVEYOR BELTS (ASSEMBLY LINE, BAGGAGE CLAIM, CHECKOUT LANE, REVOLVING SUSHI BAR)

PURPLE: STARTING WITH NAME HOMOPHONES (CARRY-ON, EL NIÑO, LOOSEY-GOOSEY, TAILOR-MADE)

Let us find out the answers to today’s NYT Connections! Let us see how many you were able to get right! 

Let’s take the time to review the groups one at a time and look at the connections that bind these four groups together.

What is the NYT Connections Game?

The New York Times publishes every day an online puzzle called NYT Games where users can compete against each other to see who can create groups of four using a combination of 16 different words in four categories. Each group of words will be assigned a color code at completion. The color coded will represent how difficult it was to create the group. Yellow will be easy and purple will be difficult, for example, so it is easier to create a yellow group than a purple group.

In addition to the use of logic, creative thinking and visual pattern recognition, the player will also have to analyze if they should associate two words together to create a group; e.g. look for similarities between the meanings of the words before forming a group.

How to Play the NYT Connections Puzzle?

The NYT Connections game tasks players with identifying 4-word clusters that are related to one another by sifting through the 16 words listed in 4 rows. After identifying a cluster of words upon finding them, the player can submit this group either by clicking on the "submit" button next to the group found or by double-clicking on that cluster to submit the cluster found. 

Once the cluster has been correctly submitted by the player, the groups of words will be removed from the available list of words. When an incorrect cluster is submitted, the number of attempted groups remaining will decrease by 1.

Although there are categories available for grouping or arranging the words, it could take the player longer than expected to find the clues within the appropriate categories.

Best Strategies to Solve NYT Connections Puzzles

If you are playing NYC Connections, you need to really try to make the simplest connections first before you try the more difficult ones. The easiest connections or the easiest to find are the ones that have something in common such as synonyms, multiple meanings etc., but you can also make connections through context!!

The reason you may not come up with an answer before you find another version of some of the letters in your puzzle, is because most puzzles have a form of distraction that will confuse you. Once you start looking for other versions of the same word, be creative and change your way of looking at the letter combinations to come up with different versions of that same word.

Other NYT Games to Explore

If NYT Connections has become your new favorite, check out other daily brain teasers and games from The New York Times. 

Wordle: Guess a five-letter word in six attempts. 

Spelling Bee: Craft as many words as possible from a set of seven letters.

Mini Crossword: For a quick wordplay, perfect for a coffee break.

That's all for today's NYT Connections puzzle! Be sure to come back tomorrow for NYT Connections Hints and Answers for May 22, 2026.