Looking for Thursday’s Connections hints and answers instead? You can find them here:
Hey, everyone! I hope this has been a terrific holiday week for you. And for essential workers and anyone else who hasn’t been able to take the time off, I trust that things have gone as smoothly as possible.
Before we get started, 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, December 27, 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…
- TAPS
- UNICORN
- IRONS
- BACON
- PRESSES
- PHOENIX
- CAR
- BUGLER
- BRIDGES
- AFRICA
- TOAST
- WASHINGTON
- GRITS
- HITS
- HASH
- CLICKS
And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:
- Yellow group — tasty treats that can help kickstart your day
- Green group — activates a toggle or switch
- Blue group — like a ska band or train
- Purple group — lauded performers
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 — breakfast sides
- Green group — pushes, as a button
- Blue group — they have a horn
- Purple group — Oscar-winning actors
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 — breakfast sides (BACON, GRITS, HASH, TOAST)
- Green group — pushes, as a button (CLICKS, HITS, PRESSES, TAPS)
- Blue group — they have a horn (AFRICA, BUGLER, CAR, UNICORN)
- Purple group — Oscar-winning actors (BRIDGES, IRONS, PHOENIX, WASHINGTON)
I got a perfect game today. That took me up to five wins in a row. Here’s how I fared:
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟦🟦🟦🟦
I’m starting to worry that there’s a very difficult game right around the corner, because this was the third relatively easy game in a row for me.
I spotted both the greens and the yellows as I was writing out the word list. There wasn’t really anything to go with UNICORN and PHOENIX in terms of mythical creatures, so I wasn’t too worried about running into a red herring here. That was two groups taken care of pretty swiftly.
I figured at first that PHOENIX and WASHINGTON might have something to do with U.S. cities, but the purples clicked when I realized how IRONS fitted in. The actors are Jeff BRIDGES, Jeremy IRONS, Joaquin PHOENIX and Denzel WASHINGTON.
I didn’t figure out the connection for the blues but it was a bit of a groaner when I saw the description pop up. The Horn of AFRICA is in the north east of the continent along the south side of the Red Sea. Fun fact: the UNICORN is the national animal of Scotland.
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. Just because I’m in the mood for it, I’m going to recommend my second-favorite song of all time, behind “God Only Knows.” This song and this band changed my life in ways I won’t get into here (though I have written about one of the main reasons before).
“Everlong” is a perfect rock song. I will love it for the rest of my life. The Michel Gondry-directed video is a work of brilliance too:
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.
