Looking for Tuesday’s Connections hints and answers instead? You can find them here:
It’s Wednesday, and you know what that means: it’s time for another round of Connections!
Fortnite is one of those games that I get really into for six weeks then set aside for six months. Then something will pull me back in. Last time, it was the cool gods and monsters season. This time, it isn’t the ronin-themed season or the interesting new movement abilities. No, it’s this:
Can’t wait to bust that out the next time my distressingly young teammates carry me to a victory royale.
Regular readers (at least those of you who read the daily recommendation at the end of each column) may know that I’m a fan of Chappell Roan. She’s the biggest breakout star of the year thanks to her terrific album and unforgettable performances. So to finally have the “Hot To Go” dance as an emote in Fortnite — something I have been awaiting since the summer — made my day.
I hope you’ve already found the thing that’s made your day too.
Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Wednesday, December 4, are coming right up.
How To Play Connections
Connections is a free, popular New York Times daily word game. You get a new puzzle at midnight every day. You can play on the NYT website or Games app.
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 items you can click, names for research study participants or words preceded by a body part.
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 usually the most difficult one. The purple group often involves wordplay.
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. As with Wordle and other similar games, it’s easy to share results with your friends on social media and group chats.
If you have an NYT All Access or Games subscription, you can access the publication’s Connections archive. This includes every previous game of Connections, so you can go back and play any of those that you have missed.
Aside from the first 60 games or so, you should be able to find my hints for each grid via Google if you need them! Just click here and add the date of the game for which you need clues or the answers to the search query.
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…
- PAN
- PINE TREE
- LEAD
- CANDLE
- COMPASS
- LOOFAH
- TURNTABLE
- SHEPHERD
- ATLAS
- TOILETRIES
- ECHO
- GUIDE
- SEWING KIT
- HELEN
- DIRECT
- JOHNSON
And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:
- Yellow group — point in the right direction
- Green group — linked by Arya’s sword in Game of Thrones or a common item in a medical clinic
- Blue group — Titan and Nike would fit in here
- Purple group — look to the left for a household fixture
What Are Today’s Connections Groups?
Need some extra help?
Be warned: we’re starting to get into spoiler territory.
Today’s Connections groups are…
- Yellow group — steer
- Green group — things with needle(s)
- Blue group — figures in Greek myth
- Purple group — starting with synonyms for lavatory
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 — steer (DIRECT, GUIDE, LEAD, SHEPHERD)
- Green group — things with needle(s) (COMPASS, PINE TREE, SEWING KIT, TURNTABLE)
- Blue group — figures in Greek myth (ATLAS, ECHO, HELEN, PAN)
- Purple group — starting with synonyms for lavatory (CANDLE, JOHNSON, LOOFAH, TOILETRIES)
No perfect game today, but I was very pleased with my opening guess. I’m up to seven wins in a row now. Here’s how I fared:
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟩🟩🟦🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟨🟨🟨🟨
At first I thought PINE TREE, CANDLE and TOILETRIES would be part of a group of nice-smelling things. But nope! As I looked around the grid, JOHNSON caught my eye. That stuck out as an odd inclusion. And then as I looked back at TOILETRIES, the purples clicked.
It’s been a little while since the last time we’ve had a purple group like this, so I was convinced these four went together, and I was correct. For the record, the synonyms are can, john, loo and toilet. I have never once called it a john or a can.
My quest for my second-ever “true perfect” game (purples, blues, greens and yellows in that order with no mistakes) was quickly over for another day. I tried a guess of SEWING KIT, COMPASS, TURNTABLE and ATLAS with a “things that spin” group in mind.
But, uh, obviously a globe is the thing that spins, not an ATLAS. And a spool of thread would spin, not a full SEWING KIT. Silly me.
I was one away from a group though, and quickly realized my error. I swapped out ATLAS for PINE TREE to get the greens. At that point, I had a solid idea about the yellows. I was right about those, but I submitted the blues frst. I didn’t figure out that connection, but between ATLAS and HELEN I probably could have.
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 Thursday’s game if you need them.
P.S. I’m quite enjoying my little look back at U.K. Christmas number one singles — or at least songs that should have taken that honor. Back in 2010, that year’s winner of The X Factor released a cover of a song by Biffy Clyro, a band I love dearly.
It was quite a bold and unconventional song choice for Matt Cardle, the winner of the biggest reality competition show around at the time, especially given the violence-laced lyrics (the song is about both sides of being in love with someone). It’s actually not a bad cover — though I don’t love the overproduced final chorus and its key change. In any case, many worse songs have held the Christmas number one spot:
That said, renaming the song from “Many of Horror” to “When We Collide” is a huge downgrade. Plus, the original is a truly beautiful, textured rock ballad that’s much better than Cardle’s cover. As my fellow Scots and I say, ‘mon the Biff:
Have a great day! Call someone you love!
If you’re so inclined, please do follow my blog for more coverage of Connections and other word games and even some video game news, insights and analysis. It helps me out a lot! Also, follow me on Bluesky! It’s fun there.
