Find the links between the words to win today’s game of Connections.
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Each day’s game of NYT Connections goes live at midnight local time. Before we get to today’s Connections hints and answers, here are Sunday’s:
ForbesToday’s NYT ‘Connections’ Hints And Answers For Sunday, September 7thBy Erik Kain
Hey there, Connectors! I hope you had a terrific weekend. Just an excellent couple of days.
Veteran Connectors know the drill by this point, but if you’re new here, welcome! I hope you become a regular visitor 🙂
I like to kick off the Monday editions of this column with a fun, upbeat song to hopefully get you moving around a little and maybe put a smile on your face. Between today’s pick and the recommendation at the end of the column (I include one of those every day!), there’s a bit of a Swedish theme this time. And yet, neither song is an ABBA one…
You may be familiar with the heartachingly gorgeous “Heartbeats” by José González (who is also Swedish). That was a cover of the debut single by an electronic band called The Knife. Both versions are fantastic, but one of them is far likelier to get you dancing. In truth, it’s more of a head-bopper or toe-tapper than a song that’ll get your whole body grooving, but I’m going with it:
Before we start, I want to mention the great 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 fun hangout spot, and you’re welcome to hang out with us.
Discord is also the best way to give me feedback about the column. I don’t look at the comments or Twitter much. You can also read my weekend editions of this column at my newsletter, Pastimes.
Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Monday, September 8 are coming right up.
How To Play NYT 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 fit 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.
What Are Today’s NYT Connections Hints?
Scroll slowly! We’re getting into spoiler territory.
Today’s 16 words are…
FISH
HIKE
HUNT
JACK
BULL
PEEL
ARCHER
TAIL
CRANK
WALK
NAP
BUNK
BALONEY
RAISE
RUBBISH
POWERS
And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:
🟨 Yellow group — lies, misinformation, AI slop and other junk
🟩 Green group — as inflation and (typically) interest do, with the help of a Pixar movie that features a flying house
🟦 Blue group — Harriet was Bourne to be one
🟪 Purple group — scan and suit would fit in here
One Word For Each NYT Connections Group
Need some extra help?
Be warned: we’re starting to get into spoiler territory.
Let’s take a look at one word for each group.
Today’s Connections word hints are…
🟨 Yellow group — BUNK
🟩 Green group — JACK
🟦 Blue group — PEEL
🟪 Purple group — NAP
What Are Today’s NYT Connections Groups?
Today’s Connections groups are…
🟨 Yellow group — nonsense
🟩 Green group — increase, with “up”
🟦 Blue group — fictional spies
🟪 Purple group — cat_____
What Are 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 final warning!
Today’s Connections answers are…
🟨 Yellow group — nonsense (BALONEY, BULL, BUNK, RUBBISH)
🟩 Green group — increase, with “up” (CRANK, HIKE, JACK, RAISE)
🟦 Blue group — fictional spies (ARCHER, HUNT, PEEL, POWERS)
🟪 Purple group — cat_____ (FISH, NAP, TAIL, WALK)
I thought for a moment that there might be a group of words that follow “take a” with HIKE, WALK and NAP. Nothing else really made sense though.
BALONEY was a giveaway for the yellows, and the greens were easy enough for me to spot. I was a little stuck after that though, to the point that I had to take a break and come back at things with fresh eyes.
At that point, though, I drew a link between FISH and NAP, and was able to find the purples. I did figure out the blues before submitting them, though. I probably should have gotten them sooner, because I’ve been thinking lately about rewatching Archer. That show is ridiculous and very funny and I haven’t watched it in ages (psst… danger zone).
Anyway, the blues refer to Sterling ARCHER from Archer, Ethan HUNT from the Mission: Impossible films, I think Emma PEEL from The Avengers (not the Marvel ones) and Austin POWERS.
Hey now, that brings my streak up to 192 wins. Just eight days away from a major milestone. Here’s my grid for this one:
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟦🟦🟦🟦
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’m sharing this song because it popped up in my go-to playlist the other day and once it gets in your head, it stays there for quite a while. It felt like “Young Folks” by Peter Bjorn and John was inescapable for a spell back in 2006. And now it won’t escape from my brain:
Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Be kind to yourself and each other! 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. You can also read my weekend editions of this column at my newsletter, Pastimes.