Find the links between the words to win today’s game of Connections.
getty
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 Monday:
ForbesNYT Connections Hints Today: Monday, December 8 Clues And Answers (#911)By Kris HoltForbesNYT Connections: Today’s Answers Explained (Monday, December 8, #911)By Kris Holt
Hey there, Connectors! I hope your week is off to a fantastic start.
There weren’t tons of surprises for me in my Apple Music Replay, a recap of what I’ve listened to via the streaming service in 2025. Electric Callboy, Babymetal, Editors, Toe and Foo Fighters were my top artists. But there were a few things in the Replay playlist, which shows the top 100 songs I’ve listened to this year, that made me raise my eyebrow.
Perhaps the most shocking/galling thing to me was that there was a Puddle of Mudd song in my top 50. I have no earthly idea how that happened. I think I listened to one of that band’s songs intentionally one time this year. And yet it’s in the top 100. I’m going to need to play everything below that on the list (plus something else) a few times to knock it out of the top 100. I can’t live with this hanging over me.
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 lovely, welcoming group of folks. I like to call it our cozy little corner of the internet. You’re more than welcome to join us. Don’t be shy!
Play Puzzles & Games on Forbes
Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Tuesday, December 9 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.
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…
DOROTHY GALECLOWNFISHTOUCANPRIDELEPRECHAUNHONEYBEEWONDERTIGERCOUNTZEBRAFOREHEADFACTORFIEVELCONSIDERUNICORNINCLUDENYT Connections Hints
And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:
🟨 Yellow group — don’t forget them🟩 Green group — like coral snake and some skunks🟦 Blue group — linked by something that Roy G. Biv might find bright and vivid, especially when there are two and the full spectrum is visible🟪 Purple group — to descend, place these in alphabetical order and sound them out NYT 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 — FACTOR🟩 Green group — TIGER🟦 Blue group — PRIDE🟪 Purple group — WONDERNYT Connections Hints – Groups/Categories
Today’s Connections groups are…
🟨 Yellow group — bear in mind 🟩 Green group — striped animals 🟦 Blue group — associated with rainbows 🟪 Purple group — beginning with number homophonesNYT 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 — bear in mind (CONSIDER, COUNT, FACTOR, INCLUDE)🟩 Green group — striped animals (CLOWNFISH, HONEYBEE, TIGER, ZEBRA)🟦 Blue group — associated with rainbows (DOROTHY GALE, LEPRECHAUN, PRIDE, UNICORN)🟪 Purple group — beginning with number homophones (FIEVEL, FOREHEAD, TOUCAN, WONDER)
My first thoughts were that there might be a group of things associated with rainbows (DOROTHY GALE, LEPRECHAUN, UNICORN and ???) and one with cereal mascots (HONEYBEE, TIGER, COUNT and LEPRECHAUN). CLOWNFISH brings to mind Finding Nemo, of course, but since we’ve had a few groups related to Pixar and animated movies lately, I didn’t think that would be the reference.
I then realized that PRIDE was the other rainbow word, and that took care of the blues. The hint referenced the Double Rainbow meme and ROYGBIV – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet – or the order of colors in a rainbow.
At that point I figured the cereal mascots were out of play. Animals with stripes then made sense for the greens.
From there, the yellows were clear enough. The “fore” part of forehead jumped out at me, so I was able to figure out the purple connection and submit those before the yellows.
I struggled to think up a good hint for the purples, but after I realized that the numbers descended (five, four, two, one) once the relevant words were in alphabetical order, I thought I had something. I hope that made sense!
Fun one today, I thought. Some nice interplay between the red herrings and the actual groups. My streak is now at 283 wins in a row. How did you get on today?
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’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 Wednesday’s game if you need them.
P.S. Having DOROTHY GALE on the grid means I need to go with a version of the character’s (and Judy Garland’s) signature song, “Over the Rainbow.” Eva Cassidy’s take might be my favorite:
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.