The New York Times released its daily Connections puzzle number 1066 on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, featuring a grid of 16 words that required players to identify four distinct thematic groupings. Today’s challenge included categories related to literature, geography, and international currencies as reported by CNET and Forbes.
The yellow group, identified as the easiest category, centered on the theme of substantial books. Players were required to group the words opus, tome, volume, and work to complete this section of the grid. Following the yellow group, the green category focused on cities named after saints, featuring Monica, Paulo, Petersburg, and Salvador.
According to Forbes, the blue group consisted of words associated with the descriptor “long.” The correct answers for this set were distance, division, johns, and weekend. The final and most difficult grouping, the purple category, utilized wordplay involving world currencies with an additional letter added to each word.
The purple category answers included Franci, rando, realm, and wonk, which are derived from the franc, rand, real, and won respectively. CNET noted that the Times now offers a Connections Bot to help players analyze their performance and track statistics such as win streaks and perfect scores after finishing the daily game.
“Saint” cities proved to be a potential area of confusion for players due to the presence of multiple words that could fit the theme. Kris Holt, a contributor for Forbes, noted that the inclusion of several saint-related names required careful elimination to solve the grid correctly.
“Saint” cities (MONICA, PAULO, PETERSBURG, SALVADOR) said Kris Holt, Contributor.
Holt shared his personal strategy for navigating the grid’s red herrings and overlapping themes. He successfully identified the yellow category first before moving on to the more complex currency-based wordplay found in the purple group.
“long” things (DISTANCE, DIVISION, JOHNS, WEEKEND) said Kris Holt, Contributor.
The game tracks various player metrics for those registered with the Times Games section. These statistics include the total number of puzzles completed, overall win rates, and the frequency of achieving a perfect score without any incorrect guesses.
