Connections puzzle for April 16, 2026, was not too difficult if you love comics. Puzzle #1040 reset after midnight and handed players 16 words to sort into four categories, with up to four mistakes before the game was over.
The answers for today’s Connections included Thermostat settings: AUTO, COOL, FAN and HEAT. Another group was Features of a Catwoman costume: BODYSUIT, CLAWS, MASK and WHIP. Those were among the common threads between words that made up the game, which the Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping create and bringing to the publication’s Games section.
Connections is a New York Times word game built around finding common threads between words, and it can be played on web browsers and mobile devices. The categories are revealed in color order — yellow, green, blue and purple — and today’s hints and answers were published on April 16, 2026, for players looking for a quicker route through #1040.
That leaves the basic rhythm of the game unchanged: the board resets after midnight, the same 16-word format returns, and a new puzzle takes its turn. For players who were stuck on the comic-book clue set today, the answer was built into the board itself.
