Find the links between the words to win today's game of Connections.
Looking for Wednesday’s Connections hints and answers? You can find them here:
Hey, folks! I trust that you’re having an excellent week so far. I hope that you fared much better than I did with yesterday’s Connections grid because, whew, it was a disaster. You’ll just have to read on to find out how I did today.
Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers are coming right up.
How To Play Connections
In Connections, you’re presented with a grid of 16 words. Your task is to arrange them into four groups of four by figuring out the links between them. The groups could be things like horror movie franchises, a type of verb or rappers.
There’s only one solution for each puzzle, and you’ll need to be careful when it comes to words that might fit into more than one category. You can shuffle the words to perhaps help you see links between them.
Each group is color coded. The yellow group is usually the easiest to figure out, blue and green fall in the middle, and the purple group is typically the hardest one to deduce. The purple group often involves wordplay, so bear that in mind.
Select four words you think go together and press Submit. If you make a guess and you’re incorrect, you’ll lose a life. If you’re close to having a correct group, you might see a message telling you that you’re one word away from getting it right, but you’ll still need to figure out which one to swap.
If you make four mistakes, it’s game over. Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen with the help of some hints, and, if you’re really struggling, today’s Connections answers.
What Are Today’s Connections Hints?
Scroll slowly! Just after the hints for each of today’s Connections groups, I’ll reveal what the groups are without immediately telling you which words go into them.
Today’s 16 words are:
- ACE
- POPCORN
- JOKER
- RAPTURE
- CRACKERJACK
- JACK
- SOULMATE
- WRENCH
- HER
- ROCKETRY
- HOTSHOT
- SIGNS
- TIRE
- EXPERT
- GLADIATOR
- CHOCK
And the hints for today’s groups are:
- Yellow group — very proficient
- Green group — they help get a car back on the road
- Blue group — NAPOLEON and 8MM would fit here
- Purple group — these begin with somewhat arbitrary groupings of toetappers
What Are Today’s Connections Groups?
Need some extra help?
Be warned: we’re starting to get into spoiler territory.
Today’s groups are...
- Yellow group — highly skilled
- Green group — used to fix a flat
- Blue group — Joaquin Phoenix movies
- Purple group — words starting with music genres
What Are Today’s Connections Answers?
Spoiler alert! Don’t scroll any further down the page until you’re ready to find out today’s Connections answers.
This is your final warning!
Today’s Connections answers are...
- Yellow group — highly skilled (ACE, CRACKERJACK, EXPERT, HOTSHOT)
- Green group — used to fix a flat (CHOCK, JACK, TIRE, WRENCH)
- Blue group — Joaquin Phoenix movies (GLADIATOR, HER, JOKER, SIGNS)
- Purple group — words starting with music genres (POPCORN, RAPTURE, ROCKETRY, SOULMATE)
I really needed a good round after yesterday’s mess, so I’m very pleased to report that I had a perfect game.
The blue group jumped out at me immediately, as I successfully avoided the playing cards red herring of JOKER, ACE and JACK. I like Phoenix’s work in general. I’ve seen all of those movies and like most of them, but there’s not a chance I’ll see the sequel to Joker. That’s maybe my least favorite film of the last five years.
The yellows were up next. I wasn’t sure about including CRACKERJACK here, but it made the most sense. I then turned to the greens. Again, I wasn’t sure about the fourth word (I don’t drive and have never changed a flat) but CHOCK seemed to be the best fit and I was right.
That left me with the purple group. I didn’t figure out the connection, but as soon as the game told me what it was, I literally rolled my eyes.
That’s all there is to it for today’s Connections clues and answers. Be sure to check my blog for hints and the solution for Friday’s game if you need them.
P.S. In today’s installment of “Scottish bands Kris listened to a lot while growing up,” I’m going to cheat again by including a solo artist and one that didn’t break through until I was of age. I really enjoy KT Tunstall, not least because she spent quite a bit of time busking in my hometown. This is the performance that shot her to stardom. It’s still jawdroppingly good, all these years later:
