Connections #1014 lands on Saturday, March 21, 2026, and it carries a difficulty rating of 2.3 out of 5 — meaning most players should be able to crack it without burning all four mistakes, though a couple of misdirects could still trip you up. Below you'll find progressive hints, from gentle nudges all the way down to the complete answers.
Quick answer: The four groups are Milieu (CIRCLE, SCENE, SPHERE, WORLD), Luminary (GREAT, ICON, LEGEND, LION), Architectural drawing tools (COMPASS, RULER, STENCIL, T-SQUARE), and Bar ___ (CHART, EXAM, MITZVAH, SOAP).
Spoiler-free category hints for Connections #1014
If you'd rather work through the puzzle on your own, these vague descriptions should point you in the right direction without giving everything away.
| Color | Hint |
|---|---|
| 🟨 Yellow | Think about a person's social surroundings or comfort zone |
| 🟩 Green | Words that describe someone extraordinary or famous |
| 🟦 Blue | Tools you'd find on a blueprint drafter's desk |
| 🟪 Purple | Each word follows the same three-letter noun — one associated with drinks, exams, and graphs |
One revealed word per category
Still stuck after the vague hints? Knowing a single confirmed word in each group can help you eliminate overlaps and lock in the rest.
| Color | Revealed word |
|---|---|
| 🟨 Yellow | BLUNT |
| 🟩 Green | MARK |
| 🟦 Blue | KING |
| 🟪 Purple | RICH |
Tricky overlaps to watch for
Several words on the board pull double duty, which is exactly how Connections puzzles create false groupings. Here are the biggest traps.
COMPASS and RULER might tempt you into a "things found in a classroom" bucket, but they belong squarely in the architectural drawing tools category alongside STENCIL and T-SQUARE. RULER also sounds like it could describe a powerful leader, which overlaps with the Luminary group — don't fall for it.
CIRCLE and SPHERE look like geometric shapes, and they are, but in this puzzle they function as synonyms for a person's social environment. SCENE and WORLD round out that set.
ICON could suggest a small graphic on a screen, but here it means a cultural or historical figure of enormous stature. It sits alongside GREAT, LEGEND, and LION in the Luminary category.
MITZVAH is the odd word that makes the purple group click. Pair it with BAR and you get bar mitzvah, the Jewish coming-of-age ceremony. The same "Bar ___" pattern applies to CHART (bar chart), EXAM (bar exam), and SOAP (bar soap).
Full answers for Connections #1014 — March 21, 2026
| Color | Category | Words |
|---|---|---|
| 🟨 Yellow | Milieu | CIRCLE, SCENE, SPHERE, WORLD |
| 🟩 Green | Luminary | GREAT, ICON, LEGEND, LION |
| 🟦 Blue | Architectural drawing tools | COMPASS, RULER, STENCIL, T-SQUARE |
| 🟪 Purple | Bar ___ | CHART, EXAM, MITZVAH, SOAP |
Recommended solve order
Step 1: Start with the purple group. "Bar ___" is a fill-in-the-blank pattern, and once you mentally prepend "bar" to every word on the board, CHART, EXAM, MITZVAH, and SOAP jump out immediately. Locking this in first removes four words that could otherwise mislead you.
Step 2: Tackle the blue group next. T-SQUARE is almost impossible to fit anywhere else — it's a drafting tool, full stop. COMPASS, RULER, and STENCIL follow naturally once T-SQUARE anchors the category.
Step 3: With eight words left, separate the Luminary group from the Milieu group. GREAT, ICON, LEGEND, and LION all describe a standout person. CIRCLE, SCENE, SPHERE, and WORLD all describe a person's social or professional environment.
How Connections difficulty works
Every Connections puzzle is color-coded by difficulty. Yellow is the most straightforward grouping, green is slightly harder, blue ramps things up, and purple is designed to be the trickiest — often relying on wordplay or fill-in-the-blank patterns. The NYT's internal testers rated puzzle #1014 at 2.3 out of 5, placing it on the easier side of the spectrum. That said, the overlap between RULER (tool vs. leader) and COMPASS (tool vs. navigation device vs. moral compass) can still burn a guess if you move too quickly.
Connections resets at midnight in your local time zone, so a new board will be waiting for you tomorrow. If you finished cleanly, share your solve grid — and if you didn't, at least now you know where the traps were.