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 7 Clues And Answers (#849)By Kris Holt
It’s Wednesday, and you know what that means: it’s time for another game of Connections!
It’s a -50 game today. We’ve seen the NYT pull some tricks with previous Connections editions that end in five-oh. Maybe there’ll be a gimmick to today’s one too. I don’t know. I haven’t looked at it yet.
What I do know is that we can get through this. You and me. Well, I’ll almost certainly be playing it first so I can help you out with hints and such. But I’m pretty sure you’ve got my back in spirit too. Let’s do it.
Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Wednesday, October 8 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…
CREAMALTERNATIVEPEARLRIVERBESTEGGSHELLOYSTERGARAGENAILGLOSSSELECTARENACLASSICELITEFLOWERMATTENYT Connections Hints
And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:
🟨 Yellow group — perhaps according to the show’s classic theme song, an aspiring Pokémon trainer wanted to be this, like no one ever was🟩 Green group — like math, slacker, gothic, stoner, pub, folk, emo, surf and yacht🟦 Blue group — satin and flat would fit in here🟪 Purple group — water, truck and track would be viable options for this groupNYT 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 — SELECT🟩 Green group — GARAGE🟦 Blue group — EGGSHELL🟪 Purple group — NAILNYT Connections Hints – Groups/Categories
Today’s Connections groups are…
🟨 Yellow group — finest 🟩 Green group — rock music subgenres🟦 Blue group — paint finishes🟪 Purple group — kinds of bedsNYT 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 — finest (BEST, CREAM, ELITE, SELECT)🟩 Green group — rock music subgenres (ALTERNATIVE, ARENA, CLASSIC, GARAGE)🟦 Blue group — paint finishes (EGGSHELL, GLOSS, MATTE, PEARL)🟪 Purple group — kinds of beds (FLOWER, NAIL, OYSTER, RIVER)
Lots of paint-related words on the grid today, including CREAM and OYSTER, which are both shades of paint. But I figured the finishes would be a group and those turned out to be the blues.
ALTERNATIVE and CLASSIC opened up the greens for me. No problem there. The yellows were pretty clear too, thanks to BEST and ELITE lighting up the way.
At that point, I had the purple connection figured out, though OYSTER was the outlier for me. Oyster bed is as synonym for oyster reef, which I didn’t know until now.
I’m slightly disappointed that there wasn’t an offbeat theme for today’s puzzle but that’s okay. I’m sure there’ll be a tricky edition of Connections before we know it. My streak is up to 222 wins in a row. Here’s my grid for today:
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟨🟨🟨🟨
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Let’s explore today’s game in more depth in my NYT Connections Answers Explained column.
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 Thursday’s game if you need them.
P.S. “Goodbye” by the math rock band Toe is a song I’d live inside of if I could. It’s utterly gorgeous, and it’s been a source of great comfort to me lately. I’ve recommended it before, so today I’m going with a live version that was released recently.
The jazzy drum performance by Takashi Kashikura is otherworldly, and the band overall is pretty darn tight. The cathartic screaming toward the end is just beautiful, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t catch a lump in my throat the first time I watched this:
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.