Looking for Saturday’s NYT Connections hints, clues and answers instead? You can find them here:
Hey, folks! I hope you’re having an excellent Sunday.
The old adage is true: you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. Even temporarily.
Several weeks ago, my washing machine stopped working properly. The spin function still functioned, which was handy before putting things in the dryer, but I spent a few weeks washing all of my clothes and so on by hand.
It wasn’t a fun time! I suppose I could have gone to a laundromat, but I spent 18 months doing that while living at my first apartment. I don’t drive, so getting to a laundromat wasn’t necessarily easy. I’m also very stubborn at times.
So yes, hand washing all of my clothes for several weeks wasn’t fun. But my landlord was finally able to arrange delivery of a fancy new washer-dryer combo this week and it’s been such a relief.
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Also, while we were on vacation, my partner hurt her shoulder at one point, which made it difficult for her to do things like change clothes or tie her hair up. I helped with both as best as I could, but it took a few days for her to regain full function of her arm.
My point is that we shouldn’t take anything for granted. Appreciate what you have, because you never know when you might have to go without something for a while.
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.
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 Sunday, April 13, 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…
- PRESENT
- CAPER
- ELDER
- ROMAN
- LOGAN
- SWIPE
- TYPEWRITER
- GOOSE
- SANS
- ABSENT
- PINCH
- LATE
- GOTHIC
- NICK
- EXCUSED
And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:
- Yellow group — pilfer
- Green group — who’s here, and if not, why not?
- Blue group — would you be so bold as to modify the kerning?
- Purple group — like chuck and straw
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 — steal
- Green group — attendance status
- Blue group — font-modifying words
- Purple group — _____berry
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 — steal (NICK, PINCH, POCKET, SWIPE)
- Green group — attendance status (ABSENT, EXCUSED, LATE, PRESENT)
- Blue group — font-modifying words (GOTHIC, ROMAN, SANS, TYPEWRITER)
- Purple group — _____berry (CAPER, ELDER, GOOSE, LOGAN)
A neat little perfect game and my streak now sits at 47 wins. Only a few more to go until the big 50! Here’s how I fared:
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟪🟪🟪🟪
The greens and yellows were no trouble at all for me. ABSENT and EXCUSED made the former clear, while PINCH and NICK did the same for the yellows.
Then, a little trouble. I suspected out of the gate that SANS, GOTHIC and ROMAN would relate to fonts. TYPEWRITER was the only other one that really made sense, though my gut felt that it was a bit of an outlier. I couldn’t really explain to you why.
Nevertheless, I guessed those four words and, folks, we were in business. Blues, done. I do love a good sans serif.
That left the purple words. I knew that ELDER and GOOSE are types of berries but I had never heard of a LOGANberry or CAPERberry. The more you know.
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 Monday’s game if you need them.
P.S. I often like to go with a chill song recommendation for a Sunday. Not today. I’ve had this one in my head for a while and I can’t shake it. Often, when I write about a song, it’s purged from my short-term memory, freeing up space for something else, so I’m afraid I have to go with this one today.
Regular readers will know that Foo Fighters have been an incredibly important band in my life. Sure, I love a lot of their radio-friendly hits, but I love when the band gets a bit scuzzy and heavier.
“Low” is a loud, high-octane song from their 2002 album One by One. It’s not my favorite Foos album by a long shot, but it has a few great songs (and some fantastic B-sides).
“Low” holds a particularly special place in my heart. Some friends and I made a music video for the song for an MTV competition. The premise is that some dude (me) is having the worst day of his life.
We didn’t win. The video didn’t make a whole lot of sense and I made a couple of editing mistakes that bother me to this day. But it was a blast to shoot and it’s still one of the things I’m most proud of making. Internet sleuths might even be able to find the video on YouTube.
I really should get back into filmmaking pursuits one of these days. After all, I am (genuinely) an award-winning filmmaker:
Have a great day! Stay hydrated! 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. Also, follow me on Bluesky! It’s fun there.
