Looking for Thursday’s Connections hints and answers instead? You can find them here:
Hey there! We’ve almost reached the weekend. I don’t know about you but I sure am ready for a little break after a hectic first week back at work.
Don’t get me wrong, I love what I do (and putting this column together is my favorite part of the work day!). But as someone who writes about technology, I’ll forever be salty that the biggest consumer tech event of the year takes place in early January.
Before we get going, I’ve started a discussion group for Connections and this column on Discord. You can chat about each game (and other topics) with me and other folks. I’m always interested to find out how other people approach the game, so join us! It’s fun.
It’s also the best way to give me any feedback about the column, especially on the rare(!) occasions that I mess something up.
Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Friday, January 10, 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…
- SUGAR
- GOAT
- RELAX
- ORANGE
- HOST
- REST
- DOOR
- HINGE
- EASY
- RYE
- DEPEND
- CAR
- RELY
- CHILL
- ENOUGH
- BITTERS
And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:
- Yellow group — conditionally
- Green group — take a beat and a deep breath or two
- Blue group — components of one of this planet’s most delicious concoctions
- Purple group — elements of a well-known brain teaser
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 — be contingent on
- Green group — “calm down”
- Blue group — ingredients in an Old Fashioned
- Purple group — featured in the Monty Hall problem
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 — be contingent on (DEPEND, HINGE, RELY, REST)
- Green group — “calm down” (CHILL, EASY, ENOUGH, RELAX)
- Blue group — ingredients in an Old Fashioned (BITTERS, ORANGE, RYE, SUGAR)
- Purple group — featured in the Monty Hall problem (CAR, DOOR, GOAT, HOST)
Hooray, a perfect game! And my overall streak is up to six wins. Here’s how I fared:
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟪🟪🟪🟪
My cocktail of choice is an Old Fashioned (I had one just last night), so I got the blues instantly. The yellows were next up, though I had a little trouble there. I wasn’t super sure whether RELY would be one of the four words, but I took a gamble and it paid off.
From there, the greens jumped out at me. Easy enough. That left the purples. I had absolutely no idea about the connection here, so I’m glad those were the last four words.
I didn’t think I had ever heard of the Monty Hall problem, but it became more familiar once I read up about it. It’s a probability puzzle largely based on the TV show Let’s Make a Deal and named after its host. There’s a Wikipedia entry about the Monty Hall problem, while ASAP Science has a good explainer:
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 Saturday’s game if you need them.
P.S. Inspired by the blues, my recommendation for today is to find a moment to relax with your favorite beverage. Whether that’s a cocktail, tea, coffee or something else, it’s such a great pick-me-up almost every time.
Have a great day! Make sure to drink enough water! 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.
