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 Thursday:
Hey there, Connectors! The weekend is almost upon us. But there’s at least one important piece of business to which we must attend before then: extending our Connections streaks by one more day.
When I was watching the movie Eraser recently, I got to thinking about that run of movies Arnold Schwarzenegger had in 1996-1997. He went from Eraser to Jingle All the Way and then Batman & Robin. Wildly different films, and I genuinely enjoy all three (yes, even Batman & Robin. Nostalgia is a heck of a thing.)
However, my favorite trifecta of releases from any actor remains the run of action flicks Nicolas Cage had in the mid-’90s. The Rock, Con Air and Face/Off are all fantastic.
I don’t have any broader point to make here, really. Just go watch some films! Movies are the best. I’m very excited for our local genre film festival to start next month.
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.
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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 Friday, June 19 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…
- TIME MACHINE
- TEETOTAL
- DIM SUM
- SOY SAUCE
- SPINDERELLA
- FORTUNE COOKIE
- VEGEMITE
- VISCOUNT
- CHOPSTICKS
- MISO PASTE
- PEOPLE PERSON
- HEART AND SOUL
- COINCIDENTALLY
- THE ENTERTAINER
- PARMESAN
- FÜR ELISE
Today’s NYT Connections Hints
And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:
- 🟨 Yellow group — akin to MSG, but not the one where the Knicks play
- 🟩 Green group — training to tinkle the ivories
- 🟦 Blue group — depending on how strong your observational skills are, you’ll see these first… or periodically
- 🟪 Purple group — they ultimately come together as one
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 — PARMESAN
- 🟩 Green group — CHOPSTICKS
- 🟦 Blue group — SPINDERELLA
- 🟪 Purple group — VISCOUNT
Today’s NYT Connections Categories
Today’s Connections groups are…
- 🟨 Yellow group — umami-rich foods
- 🟩 Green group — things a beginner might learn on the piano
- 🟦 Blue group — starting with magazines
- 🟪 Purple group — ending in synonyms for “aggregate”
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…
The umami foods (thanks to PAREMESAN) and piano pieces were clear to me from the jump, so I was able to sort out the yellows and greens promptly.
FORTUNE and TIME opened up the door for the blues. DIM SUM and TEETOTAL then helped me figure out the purple connection.
That’s win 474 in a row on the board for me. How did you get on this time? 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. You can check that out by visiting my author page.
That brings my current stint of Connections clues and answers columns here to a close. I’ll be back with you for more on Monday. In the meantime, you can read my weekend editions of this column at my newsletter, Pastimes.
P.S. I was pretty darn happy to see The Paradox pop up on NPR’s Tiny Desk. I’ve enjoyed this pop-punk band for a while. It’s great to see an all-Black band making waves in the world of rock. Here, the band rip through half a dozen songs in under 20 minutes. Really fun set here:
Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Be kind to yourself and each other! Call someone you love!
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