Hope you’re paying attention 🙂
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Each day’s game of NYT Connections goes live at midnight local time. Before we get to today’s NYT Connections hints and answers, here’s what you missed on Wednesday:
ForbesNYT Connections Hints Today: Wednesday, October 8 Clues And Answers (#850)By Kris HoltForbesNYT Connections: Today’s Answers Explained (Wednesday, October 8, #850)By Kris Holt
Hey there, Connectors! I hope you’re having a terrific week.
I’m very glad that we had some warm weather this past weekend. Being able to swim in my outdoor pool helped clear my head when I was feeling overwhelmed (my partner talking sense into me was a big help too).
I’m bummed pool season is very likely over now. I have to find another way of getting out of my head. Maybe starting to go to the movies again and having a singular thing to train my attention on for a couple of hours would be helpful. Working out in my building’s gym might work too. I’m really going to miss swimming outside in warm weather for the next seven-eight months, though.
Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Thursday, October 9 are coming right up.
NYT Connections Hints – 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.
NYT Connections Hints – Today’s 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…
LIMESTONEGORILLAPHOTOFIGMENTFANCYDATELINEPLUMBERSLATEFICTIONPRINCESSFLINTCAPTIONMARBLELEDEHEDGEHOGINVENTIONNYT Connections Hints
And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:
🟩 Green group — if someone wants you to leave, they might tell you to kick these🟦 Blue group — scroll up to see three of these things🟪 Purple group — as the EA Sports announcer has told millions for decades, it’s in the gameNYT Connections Hints – 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 — FICTION🟩 Green group —MARBLE🟦 Blue group — CAPTION🟪 Purple group — GORILLANYT Connections Hints – Groups/Categories
Today’s Connections groups are…
🟨 Yellow group — fantasy 🟩 Green group — kinds of rocks🟦 Blue group — news article features🟪 Purple group — title figures in classic video games 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…
🟨 Yellow group — fantasy (FANCY, FICTION, FIGMENT, INVENTION)🟩 Green group — kinds of rocks (FLINT, LIMESTONE, MARBLE, SLATE)🟦 Blue group — news article features (CAPTION, DATELINE, LEDE, PHOTO)🟪 Purple group — title figures in classic video games (GORILLA, HEDGEHOG, PLUMBER, PRINCESS)
I had no problem at all with this one. I couldn’t resist that hint for the yellows, even though it pretty much gave the group away. Sorry!
I almost never have to use a DATELINE (a date and location where the story originated from), but PHOTO, CAPTION and LEDE are all things I deal with every single day in my line of work. So that took care of the blues.
If it hadn’t been for LEDE and DATELINE pulling me toward the blues immediately, I would have gotten the purples first. HEDGEHOG and GORILLA made this exceedingly obvious to me.
Mario is the PLUMBER, Donkey Kong is the GORILLA (I really do need to play more Donkey Kong Bananza!), Sonic is the HEDGEHOG and I’m pretty sure Zelda – as in The Legend of Zelda — is the PRINCESS.
I wasn’t on for a reverse rainbow, so the order of the last two groups didn’t matter. Still, I thought the fantasy words might be the greens. I whiffed there. So, yellows then greens got me to win 223 on my current streak. Here’s my grid for today:
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩
Let’s explore today’s game in more depth in my daily NYT Connections Answers Explained column.
ForbesNYT Connections: Today’s Answers Explained (Thursday, October 9, #851)By Kris Holt
Would you like chat about today’s game? Want to hang out with some lovely folks who also enjoy Connections and other word games? You’re more than welcome to join our community on Discord. Expect fun GIFs, photos from people’s travels and all kinds of other fun stuff.
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.
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 Friday’s game if you need them.
P.S. Coincidentally, on the same day that “geese” was an answer in Wordle recently, I learned about a band of the same name for the first time. This rock band from Brooklyn just released their fourth album, Getting Killed. This song, “I See Myself” is from their previous record, 3D Country. It’s a bluesy, countryish number that I’m digging:
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. 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.