Each day’s game of NYT Connections goes live at midnight local time. Before we get to today’s Connections hints and answers, here are Sunday’s:
Hey there, Connectors! Welcome to the start of a new week. I’m overjoyed to be back with you here for another Monday-Friday run of this here Connections column.
You may know the drill by now. I like to kick off the Monday edition of this column with a fun, upbeat song. Hey, if I can help put a smile on your face and maybe prompt you to have a little boogie, why would I not do that?
Le’s go back to the ‘70s this time around with a track from a band called The B-52’s. “Rock Lobster” is about a beach party where someone finds a crayfish. That’s it. No deeper meaning here. It’s just a very fun song:
Before we begin, we have a great little community on Discord, where we chat about NYT Connections, the rest of the NYT games and all kinds of other stuff. Everyone who has joined has been lovely. It’s a fun hangout spot, and you’re more than welcome to hang out with us.
Discord is also the best way to give me any feedback about the column, especially on the rare (or not-so-rare) occasions that I mess something up. I don’t look at the comments or Twitter much. You can also read my weekend editions of this column at my new newsletter, Pastimes.
Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Monday, July 21 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’s 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 our hints 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…
- FREEZING
- FOOT
- EXTRA
- CONTRACTION
- ICING
- SHRINKAGE
- CONDENSATION
- MELTING
- POSSESSIVE
- YADA YADA
- BONUS
- REGIFTING
- FESTIVUS
- QUOTE
- GRAVY
- VAPORIZATION
And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:
- 🟨 Yellow group — a little more
- 🟩 Green group — shape shifting
- 🟦 Blue group — from the school of “no hugging, no learning”
- 🟪 Purple group — a tiny mark can have great meaning
One Word For Each Connections Group
Need some extra help?
Be warned: we’re starting to get into spoiler territory.
Let’s take a look at one word for each group.
Today’s Connections word hints are…
- 🟨 Yellow group — GRAVY
- 🟩 Green group — MELTING
- 🟦 Blue group — SHRINKAGE
- 🟪 Purple group — FOOT
What Are Today’s Connections Groups?
Today’s Connections groups are…
- 🟨 Yellow group — additional perk
- 🟩 Green group — phase transitions for liquids
- 🟦 Blue group — concepts from Seinfeld
- 🟪 Purple group — what ‘ can indicate
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 — additional perk (BONUS, EXTRA, GRAVY, ICING)
- 🟩 Green group — phase transitions for liquids (CONDENSATION, FREEZING, MELTING, VAPORIZATION)
- 🟦 Blue group — concepts from Seinfeld (FESTIVUS, REGIFTING, SHRINKAGE, YADA YADA)
- 🟪 Purple group — what ‘ can indicate (CONTRACTION, FOOT, POSSESSIVE, QUOTE)
I had no idea how FESTIVUS might fit anywhere, so I left that well enough alone at the outset. Thankfully, the yellows were pretty easy to put together. ICING might refer to “icing on the cake.”
The liquid transitions were also straightforward enough. POSSESSIVE, QUOTE and CONTRACTION were all grammar-related terms, but then I realized that an apostrophe can also represent a FOOT (as in 12 inches). I thought that would be the blue group but nope! Purples.
I had no idea about the blue connection, if I’m being honest. I have pretty much zero knowledge about Seinfeld. I’ve never watched the show, so have zero context for any of those, though I do vaguely recall that Seinfeld had something to do with “Happy FESTIVUS to the rest of us.”
I creaked through with a perfect game to secure a 146th win on the spin. Here’s my grid for this one:
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟦🟦🟦🟦
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. Let’s double down on ‘70s songs that are great to dance to. There aren’t many better examples of that than “Supersititon” by Stevie Wonder. What a brilliant song from a brilliant artist:
Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Be kind to yourself and each other! Call someone you love!
Please follow my blog for more coverage of NYT Connections and 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 new newsletter, Pastimes.
