Games like Connections
By the Uniko team · Updated 2026-09-29
10 games like Connections at a glance
| Game | What you guess | Category |
|---|---|---|
| Strands | Themed words in a letter grid | Words |
| PuzzGrid | Four groups in a 16-clue grid | Words |
| Red Herring | Word groups, with decoys | Words |
| Uniko | Answers to 10 trivia questions, avoiding one secret forbidden answer | Trivia |
| Contexto | A secret word by meaning | Words |
| Semantle | A secret word by meaning | Words |
| Waffle | Six words in a waffle-shaped grid | Words |
| Squaredle | Every word hidden in a grid | Words |
| Spelling Bee | Words from seven letters | Words |
| Wordle | A five-letter word | Words |
Why Connections is so addictive
Connections gives you 16 words and asks you to find four groups of four, with only four mistakes allowed. What makes it hard is the overlap: several words seem to fit more than one group, and the obvious grouping is often a decoy. The games below each borrow a piece of that feeling.
The best daily puzzles like Connections
- Strands — From the same NYT Games team: instead of sorting words into groups, you find the group's words hidden in a grid, starting from a single theme clue.
- PuzzGrid — The closest thing to Connections, inspired by the TV quiz Only Connect: find four groups of four, then name what links each group. Thousands of player-made grids.
- Red Herring — Group the words by category while avoiding the red herrings that don't belong to any of them.
- Uniko — A different kind of category game: every question is a category ("Name a US state"), almost any member is right, but one is secretly forbidden. Where Connections rewards spotting the link, Uniko rewards knowing the category well enough to avoid the obvious pick.
- Contexto — If what you like about Connections is thinking about how words relate, this one is all about meaning: every guess is ranked by closeness to the secret word.
- Semantle — The harder cousin of Contexto, with a raw similarity score for each guess.
- Waffle — A logic-heavy word puzzle: every letter is already on the board, you just have to swap them into place in 15 moves.
- Squaredle — A calmer daily word search for when you want to find words rather than groups.
- Spelling Bee — Another NYT classic: make as many words as you can from seven letters, always using the centre one.
- Wordle — The one that started it all, if somehow you don't play it already.
If you like categories, try Uniko
Connections is about spotting the category. Uniko gives you the category and asks you to fill it: “Name a country in South America”, “Name a film that won Best Picture”. Nearly anything valid is safe, except one answer the game has secretly forbidden for the day. The popular answer isn't more likely to be the trap, but on narrow categories with only a handful of valid answers, every guess is a real risk. Read how the trap is chosen.
Frequently asked questions
What is the closest game to NYT Connections?
PuzzGrid is the closest format: a 16-clue grid where you find four groups of four, inspired by the TV quiz Only Connect. Strands, from the NYT itself, is the closest in spirit.
Are there free games like Connections?
Yes. Every game on this list is free to play in the browser, with a new puzzle each day.
Is there a trivia game like Connections?
Uniko is a daily trivia game built around categories: each question names a category, almost any member of it is correct, and one secret answer knocks you out.
Can I play games like Connections with friends?
You can share results from all of them. In Uniko, friends rooms let a group play the same daily game, and repeating an answer someone in the room already gave puts you out.