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 Wednesday:
ForbesNYT Connections Hints Today: Wednesday, October 22 Clues, Answers (#864)By Kris Holt
Hey there, Connectors! I hope you’ve had a fantastic week so far.
I was chatting with a friend the other day about a cool new vinyl record he just received. He said he “rewinded” it to listen to one song again, insofar as you can do that with a record.
I mentioned that I never understood how to play a specific song on vinyl, and that I’d simply just go back to the start of track one. He said that’s typically the case but “if you look closely, you can find the groove.” That struck me as a pretty great philosophy for life. Look closely enough at something, and you might see a cool, fun or interesting aspect to it.
Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Thursday, October 23 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…
DOGGYFINEPRIZESWAGSTONEKITTYBALLDUCKYBIRDIEGOSWELLPURSEMIXEDPOTPUCKDANDYNYT Connections Hints
And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:
🟨 Yellow group — everything’s hunky dory🟩 Green group — Victor’s spoils🟦 Blue group — like foil, crampon, dinghy and flag🟪 Purple group — dirt, flea and dust 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 — FINE🟩 Green group — POT🟦 Blue group — STONE🟪 Purple group — GONYT Connections Hints – Groups/Categories
Today’s Connections groups are…
🟨 Yellow group — peachy🟩 Green group — winnings🟦 Blue group — pieces of Olympic sports equipment🟪 Purple group — _____ bag 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 — peachy (DANDY, DUCKY, FINE, SWELL)🟩 Green group — winnings (KITTY, POT, PRIZE, PURSE)🟦 Blue group — pieces of Olympic sports equipment (BALL, BIRDIE, PUCK, STONE)🟪 Purple group — _____ bag (DOGGY, GO, MIXED, SWAG)
“Bag” popped into my head as soon as I saw DOGGY, despite the red herring of kid-like names for animals (along with KITTY, BIRDIE and DUCKY). I put all of that to one side at the outset though, since I quickly saw all four of the greens.
PUCK (ice hockey), STONE (curling) and BALL (like 20 different sports) brought to mind sports equipment. It took me a moment to remember that a BIRDIE is another name for a badminton shuttlecock. That got me the blues, though I didn’t exactly link the words to Olympic sports.
(While researching, I found out that ski mountaineering will be in the Olympics for the first time at the 2026 Winter Games. Cool! Hence the inclusion of crampons in the hint. Also, a flag is used in flag football.)
At that point, the game handily bunched what were evidently the purples to the left side of the grid. That made it much easier to spot them. That left the yellows. I didn’t know of DUCKY as a synonym there.
Anyway, that’s my 236th win in a row. How did you get on?
Here’s my grid for today:
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟨🟨🟨🟨
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. (Check my author page to read the column if that link doesn’t work for you.)
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 Friday’s game if you need them.
P.S. I was looking for a piece of Olympic rowing equipment to use as a hint for the blue group and I stumbled across this video. It’s a recording of coxswain Harry Brightmore guiding the Great Britain team to victory in the Men’s Eight Rowing Final at Paris 2024.
I found it super interesting! I’d never heard a recording of someone coxing a team before, let alone one from an Olympic final. It’s enough to make me want to hop on my rowing machine and rewatch The Social Network:
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.