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Today’s NYT Connections challenges players with deceptively simple words that hide clever patterns.
The puzzle groups move from kitchen items and standard tools to 1980s pop icons and movie-related phrases.
With only a few guesses allowed, success depends on sharp observation, cultural knowledge, and smart elimination.
Today's NYT Connections presents a clever and amusing word puzzle that very well balances the difficulty scale from easy to tricky. It is a relaxing game that puts players' vocabulary and pattern recognition skills to the test without being too hard, making it the ideal choice for a relaxing puzzle session.
Some categories to be dealt with are evident immediately, while others require more reasoning and time, making their solution more enjoyable. Today’s layout provides just the right challenge to keep players' interest and satisfaction throughout the process.
Each game provides a sixteen-square grid, full of fascinating words or phrases, which makes for a chaotic word jumble. The solver must find four sets of four words, each set tied together by one common theme.
There is only one possible solution, and the player will be allowed up to three incorrect answers before the game ends. Finished groups receive a color based on how difficult they were:
Yellow: FEATURES OF A TEAPOT
Green: LIBRARY SECTIONS
Blue: ARISE
Purple: _____ DROP
FEATURES OF A TEAPOT: HANDLE, LID, SPOUT, STRAINER
LIBRARY SECTIONS: CIRCULATIONS, PERIODICALS, REFERENCE, STACKS
ARISE: EMERGE, FLOW, ISSUE, RESULT
____ DROP: AIR, EAVES, GUM, RAIN
Also Read: NYT Connections December 20, 2025: Today’s Answers, Hints, and Full Puzzle Breakdown
Yellow: FEATURES OF A TEAPOT: HANDLE, LID, SPOUT, STRAINER
These words point to the essential parts of a teapot, each playing a role in holding, covering, pouring, or filtering tea.
Green: LIBRARY SECTIONS: CIRCULATIONS, PERIODICALS, REFERENCE, STACKS
All of these refer to specific areas or departments commonly found within a library.
Blue: ARISE: EMERGE, FLOW, ISSUE, RESULT
Each word is a synonym connected to the idea of something coming into existence or happening.
Purple: _____ DROP: AIR, EAVES, GUM, RAIN
These familiar phrases, when paired with the word ‘drop,’ form standard compound terms.
Also Read: NYT Connections Hints and Answers for December 19, 2025 (Puzzle #922)
Today’s puzzle, as a whole, is relatively easy and friendly to the players with four distinct word groups.
The first group contains the matching of conventional parts of a teapot, the second one has the identification of common areas in a library, and the third one is about connecting verbs that have close meanings to ‘arise.’
The last section verifies understanding of phrases by completing the widely used ‘drop’ expressions. Through this means of relating to and connecting easily, the puzzle becomes not only simple to follow but also interesting, with a good number of enlightening moments.
