Utilities, adaptable items, types of ants, and internet memes form today’s four groups.
Hints guide logical grouping, helping players navigate subtle red herrings and wordplay effectively.
Careful observation and pattern recognition are essential to solving NYT Connections efficiently.
October 22 is here, with another interesting puzzle from the NYT Connections series, offering a smart combination of hints that include everyday items, adaptations, ants, and internet humor. Players meet subtle misdirections that make categorization a satisfying challenge. The grid of the day pushes one to the limit of watchfulness and imagination, predominantly when a few words give an idea of many possible categories.
NYT Connections is an everyday word game in which 16 words are to be classified into four groups of 4. Each of the groups has a common theme. Players can guess three times, but a fourth incorrect guess ends the round. Connections blends logic, cultural knowledge, and wordplay. New players can access the puzzle via the NYT Games app or website, with archives available to subscribers for past puzzles.
FASHION, WRITER, PASTA, SHAPE, PHARAOH, TAILOR, FIRE, WATER, GAS, CARPENTER, ELECTRIC, MOLD, TELEPHONE, CAT, RIGHT, ARMY
Yellow Group – Things we’ll all pay for, every single month
One-word hint: Utilities
Green Group – Make it fit for purpose
One-word hint: Adapt
Blue Group – Like pavement, ghost, grease, and Adam
One-word hint: Ants
Purple Group – Desk, book, and edit would all fit in here
One-word hint: Copy
Yellow: Utilities
Green: Adapt
Blue: Ants
Purple: Copy
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
This puzzle balances clear categories with clever red herrings. Utilities are fairly straightforward, but some words, like TELEPHONE, require recalling services commonly paid for monthly. The green group promotes the idea of thinking figuratively about modification and adaptation to literal objects.
The blue group employs puns on ants, which is a group that may initially cause misunderstanding. The purple group is a humorous reference to the internet culture, connecting copyPASTA and related expressions. Careful watching and discerning of word placement and overlapping hints are needed; every discovery is enjoyable.
October 22’s NYT Connections puzzle incorporates knowledge that is very practical, reasoning that is very creative, and very cultural references. The mixture of utilities, adaptable items, ant types, and internet memes gives a variety that is continuously engaging for the players. The puzzle of today emphasizes the skills of pattern recognition, lateral thinking, and the capability to find subtle connections between seemingly unrelated words.