Looking for Sunday’s NYT Connections hints, clues and answers instead? You can find them here:
Hey, gang! Welcome to the start of a new week.
It’s Monday, and that means I have an upbeat song to help start your week on a positive note, and maybe get you moving around a little.
Actually, strike that. I have two such songs, and I’ll save the second for today’s closing recommendation.
Let’s get things rolling with an all-time classic. It’s only 2:22 long, but there’s more life and energy in this than many songs that have emerged in the 62 years since this was originally released.
So, please enjoy “(You’re The) Devil In Disguise” by Elvis Presley:
Before we begin, I’ve set up a discussion group for NYT Connections and this column on Discord. We have a great little community over there and we chat about more than NYT games. Everyone who has joined has been lovely. It’s a fun hangout spot.
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It’s also the best way to give me any feedback about the column, especially on the rare(!) occasions that I mess something up since I don’t look at the comments or Twitter much.
Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Monday, March 31, 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 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…
- FORE
- WORD
- DEPOSIT
- TOO
- PUT AWAY
- SCREEN
- ATE
- BALANCE
- BESIDES
- HORSE
- TRANSFER
- TO BOOT
- HAD
- AS WELL
- TOOK IN
- WITHDRAWAL
And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:
- Yellow group — ingested
- Green group — not only that
- Blue group — there’s perhaps no need to go to a branch to carry out these actions
- Purple group — linked by the title of a Jennifer Lopez song and a Moby album (I’m such a millennial, OMG)
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 — consumed
- Green group — also
- Blue group — ATM options
- Purple group — ____play
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 — consumed (ATE, HAD, PUT AWAY, TOOK IN)
- Green group — also (AS WELL, BESIDES, TO BOOT, TOO)
- Blue group — ATM options (BALANCE, DEPOSIT, TRANSFER, WITHDRAWAL)
- Purple group — ____play (FORE, HORSE, SCREEN, WORD)
So this was kind of a weird one. I’m not sure what happened, but I mistakenly had these clues and answers in last’s Thursday edition of the column.
I fixed the error as quickly as I could after it was brought to my attention. Still, my deepest apologies for accidentally spoiling this one for anybody.
Nevertheless, my own streak is now up to 34, a new high! I did this with a perfect game too:
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟪🟪🟪🟪
I got the blues right away here and was a little surprised. I thought they’d be green at most. I was thinking of them more as “banking options” in any case. Pretty straightforward.
The greens were next up, though it took me a second to recognize that TO BOOT should go with the other three.
The yellows gave me pause as well. I was thinking of PUT AWAY in terms of literally putting some aside, but it’s a perfectly valid expression for this group.
I did figure out the purple connection before submitting it. I wonder how many Connections players are going to blush at the thought of FOREplay. Also, it’s quite meta to have a WORDplay reference in the purple group.
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 have a big soft spot for pop-punk covers of great songs, and I love this one. Me First and the Gimme Gimmes are a punk supergroup who play such covers. Their take on Culture Club’s “Karma Chameleon” never fails to get me moving:
Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Call someone you love!
If you’re so inclined, 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 Also, follow me on Bluesky! It’s fun there.
