Each day’s game of NYT Connections goes live at midnight local time. Before today’s NYT Connections hints, here’s what you missed on Sunday:
Hey there, Connectors! Welcome to the start of a new week. I hope you had a terrific weekend. I’m very happy to be back with you for another weekday run of Connections fun.
As ever, let’s get things started for this Monday edition with a fun, upbeat song. If I can help lift your mood at the start of the week, I will most happily try to do that.
I don’t know why this song popped into my head. I hadn’t heard it in forever. Still, “I’m Outta Love” by Anastacia is a pretty darn good pop song from 2000. I enjoyed hearing it again, and I hope you will too:
Before we start, I want to highlight the rad community we have on Discord, where we chat about Connections, the rest of the NYT games and all kinds of other stuff. It’s a lovely group of folks. You’re more than welcome to join us.
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Also, my weekend editions of this column are available over on my newsletter, Pastimes. If you enjoy the intros and recommendations in my Connections columns, I publish longer pieces along similar lines on Pastimes as well. I think you’d dig them.
Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Monday, June 8 are coming right up. Let’s get rolling!
NYT Connections – How To Play
Connections is a free New York Times daily word game that you can play on the NYT’s website or Games app. If you have an NYT All Access or Games subscription, you can access the Connections archive, which includes every previous game.
Connections presents you with a grid of 16 words (sometimes phrases, symbols or numbers). The aim is to arrange them into four groups of four. You don’t know how they hit together or what the category for each group is: that’s what you have to figure out.
There’s only one correct solution and there are often red herrings. You can guess incorrectly three times. A fourth wrong guess, and it’s game over.
Each group is color coded. The yellow group is usually the easiest to deduce, followed by blue, green and purple. Often, the yellow and green groups have synonyms, the blues have cultural references and the purples have some kind of wordplay involved. But this is not a hard and fast rule. Be ready for curveballs – part of the fun of Connections is in how the NYT shakes things up to keep you on your toes.
As with Wordle and similar games, it’s easy to share results with your friends using an emoji-based grid. The game tracks your progress too.
Many players take pride in having long win streaks or getting a reverse rainbow – correctly guessing the purple, blue, green and yellow groups in that order with no mistakes. That adds an extra little challenge.
Today’s NYT Connections Word List
Scroll slowly! I’ll first give you a list of today’s words, then a hint for each category. After that, I’ll reveal one word that goes into each group. Then I’ll tell you the category names, followed by the full answers.
Today’s 16 words are…
- INVISIBLE
- MOHAWK
- ISLAND
- PUNCH
- VOLLEYBALL
- ELEPHANT
- COCONUT
- DELTA
- PENINSULA
- PATE
- SEA URCHIN
- MELON
- OMEGA
- ISTHMUS
- DOME
- RUNNING
Today’s NYT Connections Hints
And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:
- 🟨 Yellow group — all at sea… or almost
- 🟩 Green group — use your noggin
- 🟦 Blue group — they have a point
- 🟪 Purple group — wolf, weather and lawnmower would fit in here
NYT Connections – One Answer Per Group
Need some extra help?
Be warned: we’re starting to get into spoiler territory.
Let’s take a look at one answer for each group.
Here we go…
- 🟨 Yellow group — DELTA
- 🟩 Green group — PATE
- 🟦 Blue group — SEA URCHIN
- 🟪 Purple group — ELEPHANT
Today’s NYT Connections Categories
Today’s Connections groups are…
- 🟨 Yellow group — landforms by water
- 🟩 Green group — slang for head
- 🟦 Blue group — things that can be spiked
- 🟪 Purple group — The _____ Man movies
Today’s NYT 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 last chance to look away.
This is your final warning!
Today’s Connections answers are…
I got the yellows first. ISTHMUS and PENINSULA made those pretty clear. RUNNING made me think of The Running Man (the original is better than the remake) and that led me toward the purples.
The greens were next up, thanks to DOME and MELON. I did wonder whether MOHAWK might fit in there for a moment. Alas, I was wrong. First time I’ve heard of PATE in this context, but it made the most sense from the remaining options. A MOHAWK is spiky, which I realized just before submitting the blues.
That’s win 463 in a row on my current streak.
How did you get on this time? Here’s my grid:
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟦🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟦🟦🟦🟦
Want to know more about how everything fits together? Let’s explore today’s game in more depth in my NYT Connections Answers Explained column. You can check that out by visiting my author page.
That’s all there is to it for today’s Connections clues and answers. Be sure to check my blog tomorrow for hints and the solution for Tuesday’s game if you need them.
P.S. “YDH” by Chloe Qisha is my favorite song of the year so far. It’s a cheeky, clever, funny, catchy bop that sounds very much inspired by ABBA. It’s so much fun, though it’s perhaps not one for folks of a more prudish persuasion. This is the first live version I’ve heard. I enjoyed it very much too:
Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Be kind to yourself and each other! Call someone you love!
Please follow my blog for more NYT Connections hints and help with other word games, and even some video game news, insights and analysis. It helps me out a lot! Sharing this column with other people who play Connections would be appreciated too. You can also read my weekend editions of this column at my newsletter, Pastimes.
