Today’s NYT Connections #1044 leans into the natural world — smoke, water, and creatures with a dark reputation. If you’re stumped, you’re in the right place. Below you’ll find layered hints starting vague and getting more specific, followed by the full answers for all four categories.
What Is NYT Connections?
New York Times word games include several daily puzzles, and Connections has become one of the most popular. The premise is simple: 16 words appear on the board, and your job is to group them into four sets of four based on a shared theme or connection.
Every puzzle is divided into four color-coded difficulty tiers. Yellow is the easiest grouping, green is moderate, blue is harder, and purple is the trickiest of all. The categories can cover anything — pop culture, idioms, science, fill-in-the-blank phrases, word associations, and more.
Connections is available free to play on both desktop browsers and mobile devices. It resets daily at midnight, so there’s always a fresh puzzle waiting.
How to Play
- Each puzzle has 16 words arranged in a 4×4 grid.
- Select four words you believe belong to the same category, then hit “Submit.”
- A correct group gets removed from the board; an incorrect guess counts as one mistake.
- You are allowed up to four mistakes before the game ends.
- You can shuffle the board at any time to help spot hidden patterns.
Category Hints 🟨🟩🟦🟪
Not ready for the answers yet? Here are vague clues for each category to nudge you in the right direction without giving anything away:
- 🟨 Yellow: Something hazy and billowing that obscures what’s behind it
- 🟩 Green: Things an angler would bring to the water
- 🟦 Blue: Characteristics and behaviors associated with a notorious spider
- 🟪 Purple: A word that goes before “Monday” to name something specific
Category Names
Still need a bit more? Here are the actual category names — no answers yet:
- 🟨 MASS OF SMOKE
- 🟩 FISHING GEAR
- 🟦 ASSOCIATED WITH BLACK WIDOW SPIDERS
- 🟪 ___ MONDAY
Full Answers
Ready for the reveal? Here are all four complete groupings for NYT Connections #1044:
- 🟨 MASS OF SMOKE: BILLOW, CLOUD, PLUME, PUFF
- 🟩 FISHING GEAR: BAIT, HOOK, NET, ROD
- 🟦 ASSOCIATED WITH BLACK WIDOW SPIDERS: CANNIBALISM, HOURGLASS, VENOM, WEB
- 🟪 ___ MONDAY: BLUE, CYBER, MANIC, MEATLESS
What Made Today Tricky
The toughest trap in today’s puzzle was WEB, CLOUD, and NET. All three carry strong tech or internet connotations — you might naturally want to group them together as internet-related terms. The puzzle deliberately exploits that instinct. WEB belongs with the Black Widow spider category, while CLOUD fits the smoke category and NET goes with fishing gear.
Similarly, HOOK could have seemed like a metaphor or music term, and PUFF might have read as a name or onomatopoeia. The key was recognizing that the yellow category was entirely about visible masses of smoke — and BILLOW, PLUME, and PUFF all fit that picture perfectly once CLOUD’s smoke meaning clicks.
The purple category was the sleekest misdirection. BLUE Monday (New Order’s famous song / the most depressing day of the year), CYBER Monday (the post-Thanksgiving online shopping day), MANIC Monday (The Bangles), and MEATLESS Monday (the environmental diet initiative) are all well-known phrases, but stripping off the “Monday” suffix makes the four words look unrelated at first glance.
Tips for Today
- Start with fishing gear. BAIT, HOOK, NET, and ROD are unambiguous once you ignore the tech/metaphor readings of NET and HOOK. Lock these in first to free up the board.
- Separate the web from the internet. WEB here refers to a spider’s silk structure, not the World Wide Web. If you mentally tag it as “spider” rather than “internet,” the blue category becomes much clearer.
- Think in phrases for purple. Each purple word pairs with “Monday” to make a recognizable compound phrase or cultural reference. If you can name a famous “___ Monday” phrase for each word, you have the right group.
- Don’t overthink CLOUD. It’s tempting to associate CLOUD with computing or weather forecasting, but in the context of today’s yellow category, it refers to a rolling mass of smoke — the same meaning as BILLOW, PLUME, and PUFF.
More Daily Puzzle Help
Looking for answers to other recent puzzles? Check out these recent posts:
- April 16, 2026 NYT Connections Puzzle #1040 Hints and Answers
- April 13, 2026 NYT Connections Puzzle #1037 Hints and Answers
- April 12, 2026 NYT Connections Puzzle #1036 Hints and Answers
- April 18, 2026 Wordle #1764 Hint and Answer
- April 18, 2026 Hurdle Hints and Answers
- On the Cheap — April 18, 2026 NYT Strands Hints and Answers
Shahid Maqsood is a digital entrepreneur and SEO specialist focused on building engaging web experiences. He is the creator of DotWordle, combining creativity with smart, user-friendly design.
