Looking for Friday’s Connections hints and answers? You can find them here:
Hey there, everyone! Welcome to the weekend. I hope it’s an excellent one for you. My building’s management is opening up the pool, which is very exciting to me. I plan to spend much of the summer there, especially considering that all I need to get my work done for the most part is a laptop and an internet connection. Joy.
Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers are coming right up.
How To Play Connections
In Connections, 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 horror movie franchises, a type of verb or rappers.
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 typically the hardest one to deduce. The purple group often involves wordplay, so bear that in mind.
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.
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:
- CATFISH
- HAIRPIN
- FISHBOWL
- TRAMPOLINE
- MOUSETRAP
- WEREWOLF
- BULLDOG
- SWITCHBACK
- DOGLEG
- MATTRESS
- HORSEFLY
- CATEGORIES
- TURTLEDOVE
- CHARADES
- CLOCK
- ZAG
And the hints for today’s groups are:
- Yellow group — double-barreled fauna
- Green group — quick changes of direction
- Blue group — parlor activities, perhaps
- Purple group — you might have a ____ blank in your step if you have any of these, or they may make you feel slinky
What Are Today’s Connections Groups?
Need some extra help?
Be warned: we’re starting to get into spoiler territory.
Today’s groups are…
- ellow group — animals whose names are two animals
- Green group — sharp turns
- Blue group — classic party games
- Purple group — things with spring(s)
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 — animals whose names are two animals (BULLDOG, CATFISH, HORSEFLY, TURTLEDOVE)
- Green group — sharp turns (DOGLEG, HAIRPIN, SWITCHBACK, ZAG)
- Blue group — classic party games (CATEGORIES, CHARADES, FISHBOWL, WEREWOLF)
- Purple group — things with spring(s) (CLOCK, MATTRESS, MOUSETRAP, TRAMPOLINE)
Fun game today. It wasn’t a perfect one for me, but I was glad to get a win just after losing a four-day streak.
ZAG, being one of the few short words on today’s grid, was my entry point into the greens. Likewise for CHARADES with the blues, but I made a couple of incorrect guesses that included MOUSETRAP before finding the correct combination of words.
With only the “easiest” and “hardest” groups left (that’s not always necessarily the case!), I had to have been missing something. So when I looked at all the words more carefully and broke them down, I figured out the yellow group. I didn’t deduce the purple connection but a win is a win.
That’s all there is to it for today’s Connections clues and answers. Be sure to check my blog for hints and the solution for Sunday’s game if you need them.
P.S. It only came out on Friday but I’m already enamored with the new Billie Eilish album, Hit Me Hard And Soft. She and her brother and collaborator Finneas continue to surprise and delight at almost every turn, all the while managing to expertly ground the album’s tonal shifts with her unmistakably great voice.
“Lunch” is the only track with a music video so far, so I’ll go with that one. It’s got a great groove and it it has all the makings of a new queer anthem. The video’s a lot of fun too — it feels like a throwback to the early ‘90s — and then you get smacked with slightly gloomy synths during the last minute. Big fan. Keep doing your thing, Billie.
