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’m very happy to be back here with you for another weekday run of this column.
As you might know by now, I like to get things started on Mondays with a fun, upbeat song for no other reason than to help you get your week started on a positive note.
I’m gonna do something a little different this week. It’s not going to be for everyone. It’s very much my bag, though.
I saw my favorite band live the other day and, as ever, put on a heck of a show. They have a playlist of songs for the changeovers – the breaks between their support acts and before their own headlining set – that’s filled with EDM remixes of rock and metal songs from the likes of Nirvana, Blink 182, Avril Lavigne, Linkin Park and Slipknot.
The band shared this playlist on YouTube a while back and it absolutely rules. Because of the performers and this playlist, I didn’t stop dancing for a minute at the show. Fantastic night:
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.
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, May 18 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…
- WIKI
- POP
- SPLIT
- PADRE
- PÈRE
- LUMP
- BLOW
- CHEAP
- EARP
- PEAR
- CRACK
- ROYAL
- RED
- PAIR
- TWIN
- PARE
Today’s NYT Connections Hints
And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:
- 🟨 Yellow group — same but different
- 🟩 Green group — I’m bursting to tell you the answer
- 🟦 Blue group — tiger, guardian and angel would fit in here, slugger
- 🟪 Purple group — mixed just as well as a certain type of salad
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 — PEAR
- 🟩 Green group — CRACK
- 🟦 Blue group — PADRE
- 🟪 Purple group — WIKI
Today’s NYT Connections Categories
Today’s Connections groups are…
- 🟨 Yellow group — homophones
- 🟩 Green group — rupture
- 🟦 Blue group — MLB player
- 🟪 Purple group — fruit anagrams
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…
- 🟨 Yellow group — homophones (PAIR, PARE, PEAR, PÈRE)
- 🟩 Green group — rupture (BLOW, CRACK, POP, SPLIT)
- 🟦 Blue group — MLB player (PADRE, RED, ROYAL, TWIN)
- 🟪 Purple group — fruit anagrams (CHEAP, EARP, LUMP, WIKI)
The POP/PADRE/PÈRE red herring for “dad” words didn’t fool me. Not with three homophones for the latter on the grid. That took care of the yellows, mes amis. That meant PADRE probably had to be an MLB player, which led me into the blues.
From there, I noticed that what had to be the greens were bunched together in the middle of the grid. So I naturally had to submit the purples first. I had no clue about the category there, but I’ll happily take another win – my 442nd in a row – to start the week on a positive note.
How did you get on today? 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 right here:
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. I really like The Last Dinner Party, and I think these two covers that they did are just swell. For BBC Radio 1, they covered “Naked In Manhattan,” which is one of my favorite Chappell Roan songs:
And for Triple J’s excellent Like a Version series, they performed “Call Me” by Blondie. Great stuff:
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.
