{"id":459422,"date":"2026-05-21T03:35:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T03:35:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/459422\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T03:35:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T03:35:22","slug":"nyt-connections-hints-today-thursday-may-21-clues-and-answers-1075","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/459422\/","title":{"rendered":"NYT Connections Hints Today: Thursday, May 21 Clues And Answers (#1,075)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Find<\/a><\/p>\n

Find the links between the words to win today’s game of Connections.<\/p>\n

getty<\/p>\n

Each day\u2019s game of NYT Connections goes live at midnight local time. Before today\u2019s NYT Connections hints, here\u2019s what you missed on Wednesday:<\/p>\n

ForbesNYT Connections Hints Today: Wednesday, May 20 Clues And Answers (#1,074)By Kris Holt<\/a><\/p>\n

Hey there, Connectors! I hope you\u2019ve had a great week so far.<\/p>\n

In general, I try to be as optimistic and upbeat as I can. That mindset makes life more fun! But I am human, and there are inevitably going to be things that pull me down a bit. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m feeling that at the minute after spending several hours this week writing about<\/a> the latest AI news from a certain giant tech company. I don\u2019t have the bandwidth right now to go on another big rant about why all of this stuff is terrible \u2013 Aftermath<\/a> cut to the core of some of the reasons why the search changes in particular stink. <\/p>\n

Alas, I can\u2019t tune all of this noise out entirely. But, when I\u2019m not working, I can at least make the conscious choice to spend more of my time focusing on things that bring me joy, like listening to music that makes me want to dance, letting films and games absorb me, and being present with loved ones. Keeping things in perspective sure does help one deal with the crud of modern life.<\/p>\n

Before we start, I want to highlight the rad community we have on Discord<\/a>, where we chat about Connections, the rest of the NYT games and all kinds of other stuff. It\u2019s a lovely group of folks. You\u2019re more than welcome to join us. <\/p>\n

Also, my weekend editions of this column are available over on my newsletter, Pastimes<\/a>. If you enjoy the intros and recommendations in my Connections columns, I publish longer pieces along similar lines on Pastimes as well. I think you\u2019d dig them.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s NYT Connections hints and answers for Thursday, May 21 are coming right up. Let\u2019s get rolling!<\/p>\n

NYT Connections \u2013 How To Play<\/p>\n

Connections is a free New York Times daily word game that you can play on the NYT\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t know how they hit together or what the category for each group is: that\u2019s what you have to figure out.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s only one correct solution and there are often red herrings. You can guess incorrectly three times. A fourth wrong guess, and it\u2019s game over.<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 part of the fun of Connections is in how the NYT shakes things up to keep you on your toes.<\/p>\n

As with Wordle and similar games, it\u2019s easy to share results with your friends using an emoji-based grid. The game tracks your progress too.<\/p>\n

Many players take pride in having long win streaks or getting a reverse rainbow \u2013 correctly guessing the purple, blue, green and yellow groups in that order with no mistakes. That adds an extra little challenge.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s NYT Connections Word List<\/p>\n

Scroll slowly! I\u2019ll first give you a list of today\u2019s words, then a hint for each category. After that, I\u2019ll reveal one word that goes into each group. Then I\u2019ll tell you the category names, followed by the full answers.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s 16 words are…<\/p>\n

LOVECHESSHONEYMOONPEACHHOTYELLOWPUMPKINADVANTAGECANPECANCOLONELDEUCESHOOFLYCABOOSEFORTYToday\u2019s NYT Connections Hints <\/p>\n

And the hints for today\u2019s Connections groups are:<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udfe8 Yellow group \u2014 apple, pizza and cutie are other options\ud83d\udfe9 Green group \u2014 like the target of a joke or part of a cigarette\ud83d\udfe6 Blue group \u2014 before game and set\ud83d\udfea Purple group \u2014 hot dog! That’s got a tangy kick!NYT Connections \u2013 One Answer Per Group<\/p>\n

Need some extra help? <\/p>\n

Be warned: we\u2019re starting to get into spoiler territory.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a look at one answer for each group.<\/p>\n

Here we go\u2026 <\/p>\n

\ud83d\udfe8 Yellow group \u2014 PUMPKIN\ud83d\udfe9 Green group \u2014 MOON\ud83d\udfe6 Blue group \u2014 FORTY\ud83d\udfea Purple group \u2014 YELLOWToday\u2019s NYT Connections Categories<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Connections groups are…<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udfe8 Yellow group \u2014 kinds of pies \ud83d\udfe9 Green group \u2014 things associated with butts \ud83d\udfe6 Blue group \u2014 tennis scoring terms \ud83d\udfea Purple group \u2014 _____ mustard Today\u2019s NYT Connections Answers<\/p>\n

Spoiler alert! Don\u2019t scroll any further down the page until you\u2019re ready to find out today\u2019s Connections answers.<\/p>\n

This is your last chance to look away. <\/p>\n

This is your final warning!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Connections answers are… <\/p>\n

NYT Connections answers for May 21, 2026<\/p>\n

Screenshot by Kris Holt<\/p>\n

My first thought after looking at today\u2019s grid was \u201cWhat on Earth is (a) SHOOFLY?\u201d Had to be a purple, right? I saw “hoof” in the middle and thought there might be something to that,<\/p>\n

Still, I got the tennis scores first and was surprised those were the blues. COLONEL and HONEY then got me to the purples.<\/p>\n

Ummmm… at that point, there was only one thing that could link CABOOSE and MOON. So I got the greens. That left the yellows as my default group for today. I suppose PEACH could have fit in there. But I’m certainly going to have to look up whatever the heck a SHOOFLY pie is for today’s Answers Explained.<\/p>\n

A tricky one today, but I still managed to achieve a perfect game, somehow, for win number 445 on my current streak.<\/p>\n

How did you get on today? Here’s my grid:<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udfea\ud83d\udfea\ud83d\udfea\ud83d\udfea
\ud83d\udfe8\ud83d\udfe8\ud83d\udfe8\ud83d\udfe8
\ud83d\udfe9\ud83d\udfe9\ud83d\udfe9\ud83d\udfe9
\ud83d\udfe6\ud83d\udfe6\ud83d\udfe6\ud83d\udfe6<\/p>\n

Want to know more about how everything fits together? Let\u2019s explore today\u2019s game in more depth in my NYT Connections Answers Explained column right here<\/a>:<\/p>\n

ForbesNYT Connections Answers Explained For Thursday, May 21 (#1,075)By Kris Holt<\/a><\/p>\n

That\u2019s all there is to it for today\u2019s Connections clues and answers. Be sure to check my blog<\/a> tomorrow for hints and the solution for Friday\u2019s game if you need them.<\/p>\n

P.S. I saw a Reddit thread<\/a> from the director of this music video talking about how they decided to plow most of the budget into the special effects makeup, bringing in an Emmy-winning makeup artist to handle those duties. <\/p>\n

They created a rat-person character who tries to assimilate into human life. It\u2019s a cool video (because humans make art and machines cannot) and \u201cSpark\u201d by The Overjoyed is a fun pop-punk track. An instant playlist addition for me:<\/p>\n

Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Be kind to yourself and each other! Call someone you love!<\/p>\n

Please follow my blog<\/a> 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Find the links between the words to win today’s game of Connections. getty Each day\u2019s game of NYT…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[199134,49052,184547,184546,98900,199133,184548,199132,81926,93,184549,61,60],"class_list":["post-459422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-connections-1075","tag-connections-answers","tag-connections-clues","tag-connections-hint","tag-connections-hint-today","tag-connections-may-21","tag-connections-nyt","tag-connections-thursday","tag-connections-today","tag-entertainment","tag-how-to-play-connections","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}