Airline and career categories offer early anchors before tougher wordplay emerges later.
Overlapping meanings create misdirection, especially between attribution and reporting terms.
The purple group relies on hidden word endings, making it the most unexpected challenge.
The NYT Connections puzzle for December 27 relies a lot on misdirection and nontraditional wordplay. A few categories seem reasonable at first sight, but one group brings in a surprise that shapes the whole grid. The puzzle seems to be of moderate difficulty, with the purple group being the most startling and least obvious connection of the day.
NYT Connections is a daily word puzzle that challenges players to sort 16 words into four groups of four. Each group shares a single theme, though the category is hidden until solved. Only one correct solution exists. Players can make up to three mistakes before the game ends. Categories are color-coded by difficulty, starting with yellow and ending with purple.
CREDIT
VILLAGER
CALLING
FIRST
BUSINESS
NAME
REPORT
NAMESAKE
DECIDER
PREMIUM
CRAFT
ECONOMY
LINE
CITE
TRADE
REFERENCE
Yellow Group: Think air travel tiers
Green Group: Giving proper acknowledgment
Blue Group: Professional paths
Purple Group: Hidden drink references
Yellow: Flight
Green: Credit
Blue: Work
Purple: Alcohol
Yellow – Airline classes: BUSINESS, ECONOMY, FIRST, PREMIUM
Green – Attribute: CITE, CREDIT, NAME, REFERENCE
Blue – Vocation: CALLING, CRAFT, LINE, TRADE
Purple – Ending with alcoholic beverages: DECIDER, NAMESAKE, REPORT, VILLAGER
These NYT Connections answers confirm that the final category depends entirely on spotting concealed endings rather than meaning.
The yellow group proves approachable, especially for frequent travelers familiar with airline seating classes. The green group introduces overlap, as REPORT appears tempting but ultimately belongs elsewhere. The blue group still keeps it all in the domain of job-related language, but LINE requires one to think abstractly. The purple group throws the most extraordinary challenge, as their decoding relied on the hidden names of drinks and not on their meanings.
The December 27 grid highlights why NYT connections today remain engaging. Logical groupings mix with bold wordplay, forcing careful elimination. The purple category based on alcohol feels strange, even according to NYT Connections standards, and makes the puzzle unforgettable. For regular solvers, winning means the elimination of the apparent groups at the start and the keeping of the experimental patterns for the last stage.