Connections is a game from the New York Times that challenges you to find the association between words. It sounds easy, but it isn’t—Connections categories can be almost anything, and they’re usually quite specific. If you need a hand getting the answers, we’ve got you covered.

What Is Connections?

Connections is a game from the New York Times. The objective is simple: sort 16 words into groups of 4. Each group of words will be connected by some common idea or theme. That common element could be anything. We have seen everything from games that rely on the number of letters in the words to categories that require you to spot an extra letter at the end of the word. Sometimes they’re references to economics, other times they reference fairy tales. There is no telling what sort of association there will be between words.

Once you’re confident you understand the connection, select 4 words, then hit “Submit.” You have only four attempts in total, so don’t be too guess-happy.

Hints for Today’s Connections Categories

Here are a few small hints for the 315th Connections game to get you started:

• Yellow: Discard
• Green: Think Dirt.
• Blue: Bodies of Water.
• Purple: None of these examples involve a volleyball.

What Are Today’s Connections Categories?

If you still need help, the actual categories are:

• Yellow: Thrown Out
• Green: Terra Firma
• Blue: Seas
• Purple: Tom Hanks Movies

Today’s NYT Connections Answers

Thrown Out (Yellow):

Boot, Bounce, Eject, Toss

Terra Firma (Green):

Earth, Ground, Land, Soil

Seas (Blue):

Baltic, Black, Phillipine, Red

Tom Hanks Movies (Purple):

Big, Philadelphia, Splash, Sully

How Did We Solve This Connections Game?

April 23rd was a pretty average game.

I started by shuffling the board a few times, which pushed baltic, black, phillipine, and red closer together. That made it click immediately: these are all “Seas,” which was the Blue category.

With geography already in mind because of the Blue category, I latched on to earth and land next. Ground and soil seem related—they’re all words that can refer to the solid parts of the planet, after all. Together, they were “Terra Firma,” the Green category.

With 8 words left, 4 were very obviously related: boot, bounce, eject, and toss. They’re all pretty active words, and the only other really active word left is splash. Splash is a little odd, since it is related to water, and none of the others do. They’re related to getting rid of something, or forcibly removing something. I chose to omit splash and go with my original guess, which proved to be correct. The Yellow category was “Thrown Out.”

That means the remain words—Big, Philadelpha, Splash, and Sully—all belong to the Purple category. These words together seemed familiar, but I couldn’t quite figure out why. By happy accident, I glanced at a bookshelf and my eyes fell on The Green Mile, a book by Stephan King. Then the connection hit me: Tom Hanks was in the movie adaption of that novel, but he was also the leading actor in Big, Philadelphia, Splash, and Sully. The category, was you might expect, was “Tom Hanks Movies.”

How Do You Guess Connections Categories?

There is no quick, reliable way to approach Connections like there is with Wordle, since Connections isn’t algorithmic. However, there are a few things to keep in mind that can help.

1. Look for similar parts of speech. Are some words verbs and others nouns? Are some adjectives? Try mentally grouping them based on those categories and see if any other patterns jump out at you.
2. Are the words synonyms? Sometimes categories will just be synonyms for a phrase, or very close to synonyms. Don’t rely too closely on this, though. Occasionally, Connections will deliberately throw in words that are sometimes synonyms to mislead you.
3. Try saying the words. Sometimes, saying the words helps. One puzzle we saw included the words go, rate, faster, clip, pace, speed, move, commute, and hurry—all of which are obviously related to the idea of motion. However, when you say them, it becomes a little more obvious that only four (go, move, hurry, faster) are things you’d actually say to prompt someone to get moving.
4. Expect the red herring. Connections usually has words that could be plausibly, yet incorrectly, grouped together. Take the words Bud, Corona, and Light, as an example. You might instinctively see those three words together and assume they’re lumped together in a category related to beer—but they weren’t.
5. Look for distinct words. If a word on your board doesn’t have multiple meanings or can really only be used in one context, try using that word as the basis for a category.
6. Shuffle the board. Sometimes, moving words around will help you look at them in new ways.

If you didn’t solve this one, don’t feel too bad—there’s always tomorrow! And those words may align with a topic you’re interested in, giving you a leg up on the competition.