New York Times Releases Daily Word Puzzles: Connections and Strands
The New York Times has released its daily digital word games, Connections and Strands, for June 18, 2026. Connections challenges players to group words into four categories, while Strands requires finding words related to a theme, which is "Beneath the waves" for today, with the spangram "Coral Reef".
Key points
- The New York Times offers daily digital word games including Connections and Strands.
- Connections requires players to find common themes among sets of four words.
- Today's Strands puzzle, game #837, has a theme of "Beneath the waves".
- The Strands puzzle includes a spangram, a word summing up the theme, which is 'Coral Reef'.
- Both games reset daily at midnight and are available on web browsers and mobile devices.
The New York Times has launched its daily word puzzles for Thursday, June 18, 2026. These include the popular "Connections" game, which challenges players to identify shared themes among groups of words, and "Strands," a more complex word-search game.
For Connections (game #1103), players must sort 16 words into four distinct categories. Hints suggest categories such as "Organized exercise," "Outward behavior," "Famous pacifists," and "DIY equipment missing their ends." The game is known for its trickiness, requiring players to find the single correct grouping among potentially overlapping word associations.
Today's Strands puzzle (game #837) centers around the theme "Beneath the waves." Players must find words linked by theme within a grid, with all letters forming part of an answer. A key element is the "spangram," a word that spans the entire grid and summarizes the theme. For this puzzle, the spangram is "Coral Reef," and the word list includes terms like Shark, Seaweed, Algae, Fish, Urchin, and Crab. Strands allows words to be formed diagonally and in changing directions.
Both Connections and Strands, developed in part by associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu, reset daily at midnight in each player's time zone and are accessible via web browsers and mobile devices. These games are part of the New York Times' growing portfolio of popular digital puzzles.
Sources
The WireByte editorial team synthesises technology news from multiple primary sources, verifies the facts, and links every source. Articles are produced with AI assistance and reviewed under our editorial policy.