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 NYT Connections hints and answers, here’s what you missed on Tuesday:
ForbesNYT Connections Hints Today: Tuesday, October 21 Clues And Answers (#863)By Kris Holt
It’s Wednesday, and you know what that means: it’s time for another game of Connections!
I’ve been playing Connections: Sports Edition again recently for a separate daily hints column. I’m not very good at that version of the game. Naturally, there are a lot of references to American sports, and I don’t know many of those at all. If there are any references to college sports, I’m absolutely cooked.
But there is one aspect of that variant I’d like to see in OG Connections: the optional timer. I’d be very interested to see how quickly people complete the puzzle. It wouldn’t necessarily work for me, since I always write out the word list before getting started, but I’d love to find out other people’s solve times.
Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Wednesday, October 22 are coming right up. Let’s get rolling!
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…
FASHIONWRITERPASTASHAPEPHARAOHTAILORFIREWATERGASCARPENTERELECTRICMOLDTELEPHONECATRIGHTARMYNYT Connections Hints
And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:
🟨 Yellow group — things we’ll all pay for, every single month, until the end of time🟩 Green group — make it fit for purpose🟦 Blue group — like pavement, ghost, grease and adam🟪 Purple group — desk, book and edit would all fit in hereNYT 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 — WATER🟩 Green group — FASHION🟦 Blue group — ARMY🟪 Purple group — RIGHTNYT Connections Hints – Groups/Categories
Today’s Connections groups are…
🟨 Yellow group — utilities🟩 Green group — adapt to fit one’s needs 🟦 Blue group — kinds of ants🟪 Purple group — copy____ 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 — utilities (ELECTRIC, GAS, TELEPHONE, WATER)🟩 Green group — adapt to fit one’s needs (FASHION, MOLD, SHAPE, TAILOR)🟦 Blue group — kinds of ants (ARMY, CARPENTER, FIRE, PHARAOH)🟪 Purple group — copy____ (CAT, PASTA, RIGHT, WRITER)
CARPENTER initially made me think there might be a group of words that would come after “Sabrina,” but maybe that’s just me. I also thought WRITER, CARPENTER and TAILOR might be part of a group of jobs. Nothing else really made sense other than perhaps PHAROAH, but that felt like a stretch.
GAS and ELECTRIC made the yellows sort of clear, but I needed a second to realize that TELEPHONE was the fourth word.
SHAPE and MOLD then led me toward the greens. That meant there was no group of jobs after all.
I then realized that FIRE and CARPENTER could be kinds of ants. ARMY made sense, but I didn’t know what the fourth word might be. So then I looked at the remaining five words to see what might link them.
A few taps of the shuffle button and then CAT and WRITER landed next to each other. The purple connection clicked at that point. A copyPASTA is a sort of meme that involves copying and pasting a specific block of text over and over across the internet.
Getting the purples left PHAROAH to go with the blues to give me a perfect game. That’s a 235th win on the spin for me. How did you get on?
Here’s my grid for today:
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟦🟦🟦🟦
There doesn’t seem any need for an Answers Explained column today. CopyPASTA is the only thing I think needs any real spelling out. The rest are synonyms, seem relatively unambiguous and/or are covered by the category titles.
Would you like chat with some lovely folks about today’s game? Want to hang out with others who enjoy Connections and other word games? You’re more than welcome to join our community on Discord. Expect fun GIFs, photos from Connectors’ travels and all kinds of other fun stuff.
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 Thursday’s game if you need them.
P.S. I’ve recommended this song in the column before, but it’s been almost two years, so I’ll give myself a pass on this repeat.
I always wanted to make a TV show about highwaymen and Dick Turpin, but I was beaten to it by an Apple TV series that stars Noel Fielding. Maybe I can still make my version happen someday.
Anyway, I dearly love “Stand and Deliver” by Adam and the Ants:
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.