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The yellow group features familiar expressions, while the green group focuses on words related to hiding or concealing.
The blue group asks players to identify words that can come before ‘ball’ to form sports names.
The purple group is the trickiest, using words that sound like CGI-animated film titles.
The New York Times Connections puzzle challenges players to sort 16 seemingly unrelated words into four groups of four. Each group shares a hidden connection, with the difficulty increasing as players move from the yellow category to the notoriously tricky purple group.
If today’s puzzle has you stuck, the hints below offer a way to narrow down the possibilities without immediately giving away every answer.
Here are the clues for each of today’s four categories:
Yellow group: Not too tough.
Green group: As John Cena might say, you can’t see it.
Blue group: Like tchouk, slam, roli, ring, and floor.
Purple group: Boldt, Looker, and Munster Zinc would fit in here.
For players who want a little more help without seeing the complete solution, here is one word from each group:
Yellow group: PICNIC
Green group: OBSCURE
Blue group: PICKLE
Purple group: RHIO
These clues should make the final connections easier to spot. However, the complete answers are below, so continue only if you are ready for spoilers.
The four categories in today’s puzzle are:
Yellow group: Piece of cake
Green group: Conceal
Blue group: Words before ‘ball’ in sport names
Purple group: Homophones of CGI-animated films
The yellow category consists of words that can describe something easy. The green group focuses on words associated with hiding or covering something.
The blue category asks players to think of sports whose names end with ‘ball,’ while the purple category takes a more playful approach by using words that sound like the names of CGI-animated films.
Spoiler alert: The complete answers are below.
Yellow — Piece of Cake
BREEZE
CINCH
PICNIC
SNAP
These four words can describe something easy to do.
Green — Conceal
BLANKET
HIDE
MASK
OBSCURE
Each word can be associated with concealment or hiding.
Blue — Words Before ‘Ball’ in Sport Names
BASE
BASKET
FOOT
PICKLE
These words can precede ‘ball’ to form sports names, including baseball, basketball, football, and pickleball.
Purple — Homophones of CGI-Animated Films
ANTS
COCOA
RHIO
SEOUL
The final group relies on words that sound like CGI-animated film titles, making it the most wordplay-heavy category in the puzzle.
Today’s NYT Connections puzzle combines straightforward phrases with sports terminology and a more challenging homophone-based category. The yellow and green groups should be easier for most players to identify, while the blue group requires spotting familiar sports names. The purple category is the biggest test, asking players to move beyond meaning and focus on how the words sound.
Note: The supplied word list contains RHIO, while the purple-group reveal lists RHIO. The answer section above preserves the supplied answer as RHIO rather than silently changing it.
