NYT Connections Puzzle for July 26 Is a Brain-Bender Worth Solving
If you’ve found yourself scratching your head over today’s NYT Connections puzzle—number 776—you’re not alone. The game has been steadily gaining a devoted fan base, and July 26’s puzzle definitely gave people a mental workout. So let’s talk about what Connections is, what made today's challenge a little tricky, and how you might’ve approached solving it.
Connections is one of the New York Times' newer daily word games. It’s designed to test your ability to spot patterns and groupings in a grid of 16 words. The goal is simple: find four sets of four words that all share something in common. But the execution? That can be surprisingly tough. What throws players off is that there are often multiple plausible groupings—but only one correct answer.
Each puzzle resets daily at midnight, and players are given only four chances to make a mistake before the game ends. That pressure adds to the fun—and frustration.
Now, for today’s puzzle. If you’re someone who likes to try it yourself, consider this your spoiler alert!
The four categories in today's puzzle were:
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Herbs and spices : ANISE, DILL, MACE, SAGE
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Shades of green : BOTTLE, HUNTER, KELLY, PEA
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Travel on foot : HIKE, MARCH, TRAMP, TREK
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Starts of European capitals : COPE, LUXE, SARA, WARS
What made this one tough? For starters, some of the word pairings were tricky by design. For example, TREK and WARS might lead someone to think of Star Trek and Star Wars —but that was a red herring. Only when you placed TREK with HIKE, MARCH, and TRAMP did the walking connection really click.
The “shades of green” category was another curveball. Words like BOTTLE and PEA might not immediately scream “color” to everyone, even though they refer to specific paint or fabric shades.
And finally, the purple category—always the hardest—was labeled "Starts of European capitals." That meant finding the first parts of cities like Copenhagen (COPE), Luxembourg (LUXE), Sarajevo (SARA), and Warsaw (WARS). It’s a clever twist, and unless you’re familiar with European geography, it could’ve tripped you up.
Overall, today’s puzzle was a bit of a thinker—but that’s part of the fun. And if you didn’t get it today, don’t worry. There’s always a fresh challenge waiting tomorrow, and with it, another shot at feeling like a word wizard.
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