HIGHLIGHTS
- In today’s NYT Connections, “Mack” represents Miss Mary Mack herself from the nursery rhyme Miss Mary Mack.
- “Rivet” refers to holding someone’s attention firmly due to the compelling or unsettling nature of something and is placed in the yellow group.
- “Captivate,” “Things With Wings,” “Words That Modify ‘Watch’,” and “Words Repeated in ‘Miss Mary Mack’” are the four categories of today’s NYT Connections.
NYT Connections is a daily puzzle where players categorize 16 words into four groups based on shared themes or associations.
In yesterday’s puzzle, players had difficulty sorting words like Tchotchke and Trilobite into categories that shared a common theme.
The March 23 NYT Connections puzzle challenged players, as players struggled to sort words like Mack and Rivet into categories.
Solutions For Today’s NYT Connection (March 23)
Wyna Liu, an American puzzle creator and editor of the New York Times’ Connections, selects words that fit multiple categories.

Players then categorize words into four groups: Yellow, Green, Blue, and Purple, with difficulty increasing from easiest to hardest.
Begin by analyzing each word carefully, and it won’t take long before you quickly identify the first group.
Meaning Of “Rivet” In NYT Connections
In today’s NYT Connections, “Rivet” describes holding someone’s attention firmly due to the compelling or unsettling nature of something.

This aligns perfectly with words like Grab, Absorb, and Entrance, all of which share the ability to captivate attention.
As a result, the Yellow Group, the simplest, is titled “Captivate,” highlighting words that attract and maintain focus.
Likewise, we encounter another set of synonymous words, each characterized by the common trait of possessing wings.

Titled as “Things With Wings” the green group comprises of words like Airplane, Fairy, Fly, and Hospital in NYT Connections.
Moving forward, the blue group in today’s NYT puzzle features words commonly paired with watch to form familiar phrases.

Thus, Pocket, Smart, Stop, and Wrist constitute the blue group, titled “Words That Modify ‘Watch’” in today’s puzzle.
“Mack” Meaning In Today’s NYT Connections
With only four words remaining, we can effortlessly complete the game by sorting them into their respective group.
Instead of focusing on the literal meanings of the words, the final group consists of terms that appear in the nursery rhyme “Miss Mary Mack.“

In this context, “Mack” refers to the name in the rhyme, representing Miss Mary Mack herself.
Consequently, the final group in today’s puzzle is formed under the title “Words Repeated in ‘Miss Mary Mack,’” including Mack, Back, Black, and Buttons.
Here is the final list of words and themes, along with their difficulty levels, for today’s NYT Connections.
- Captivate (Yellow): Grab, Absorb, Entrance, Rivet
- Things With Wings (Green): Airplane, Fairy, Fly, Hospital
- Words That Modify ‘Watch’ (Blue): Pocket, Smart, Stop, Wrist
- Words Repeated in ‘Miss Mary Mack‘ (Purple): Mack, Back, Black, Buttons

