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 Tuesday:
It’s Wednesday, and you know what that means: it’s time for another game of Connections!
Folks, I’ve made a decision. I don’t really know how far away retirement is for me, but when I do call it a day, I know what my first big project will be. I’m going to record a cover version of the greatest album of all time, Songs for the Deaf by Queens of the Stone Age. I’ll do all of the songs. And I’ll do it all myself.
I’ll have to take lessons for all the instruments and I’ll certainly need to learn how to record and produce audio. It’d be a fun project. Plus, that decision gives me more of an excuse to make sure I have enough space for a drum kit.
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 occasionally publish longer pieces along similar lines there as well. I think you’d dig them.
Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Wednesday, July 22 are coming right up. Let’s get rolling!
How To Play Connections
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!
After today’s Connections word list, I’ll give you a hint for each category. After that, I’ll reveal one word that goes into each group. Then I’ll reveal the categories, followed by the full answers.
Got it? Cool.
Today’s 16 words are…
- WHITE STRIPES
- HOLE
- PINS
- STROKES
- HIVES
- HOOVES
- VINES
- SCORE
- SNAPS
- RASH
- MANE
- TWEETS
- PAR
- REDNESS
- TAIL
- ITCHING
A Hint For Today’s Connections Groups
The hints for today’s Connections categories are:
- 🟨 Yellow group — unfortunate response to an antigen
- 🟩 Green group — where four is sometimes good and sometimes bad, but should probably always be yelled
- 🟦 Blue group — fuel for the algo
- 🟪 Purple group — linked to a highly evolved lifeform
One Answer For Each Connections Group
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 — REDNESS
- 🟩 Green group — SCORE
- 🟦 Blue group — SNAPS
- 🟪 Purple group — WHITE STRIPES
Today’s Connections Categories
Today’s Connections groups are…
- 🟨 Yellow group — symptoms of an allergic reaction
- 🟩 Green group — on a golf scorecard
- 🟦 Blue group — platform-specific posts
- 🟪 Purple group — features of a zebra
What Is Today’s Connections Answer?
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…
- 🟨 Yellow group — symptoms of an allergic reaction (HIVES, ITCHING, RASH, REDNESS)
- 🟩 Green group — on a golf scorecard (HOLE, PAR, SCORE, STROKES)
- 🟦 Blue group — platform-specific posts (PINS, SNAPS, TWEETS, VINES)
- 🟪 Purple group — features of a zebra (HOOVES, MANE, TAIL, WHITE STRIPES)
I have a new theory that tiles in the top left corner of the default grid often have a red herring based on the first thing I think of. Of course I was going to immediately guess a group of “The ____” garage rock bands from the 2000s. I didn’t even look at the rest of the grid. I grew up with those bands.
Of course it was a red herring. Not even mad about it.
The golf words then stood out but, oh no, there were five contenders: HOLE, PINS, STROKES, SCORE and PAR. Since it was singular, I figured HOLE didn’t fit. Alas, I was wrong again. Logic dictated I should swap that in for PINS and I was finally off and running with the greens.
HIVES and ITCHING then took care of the yellows. The social media posts were up next (did you know a Vine revival spun up recently?). As someone who has written about social media for a living for a long time, I am annoyed I didn’t get that one earlier.
That left the fairly evident purples for my 507th win in a row. Very fun game, this one.
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.
Be sure to check my blog tomorrow for hints and the answer for tomorrow’s game of Connections if you need them.
P.S. I apologize, that purple hint was a little cheeky in an “if you know, you know” way but I could not resist. (And yes, I did check if a zebra could be considered a “highly evolved lifeform.)
“Highly Evolved” is the title track of The Vines’ debut album. Not a bad song, but I’m gonna go with my favorite track from that record, “Get Free.” It’s a punchy, short, energetic song that holds up well:
Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Be kind to yourself and each other! Call someone you love!
Please follow my blog for more NYT Connections hints and help with other word games, and even some video game news, insights and analysis. I’d really appreciate that as it helps me out. If you share this column with others who play Connections, that would be lovely too. You can also read my weekend editions of this column and more of my writing at my newsletter, Pastimes.
