

Yellow Category: The most straightforward group today, focusing on synonyms for effusive or excessive admiration.
Green Category: This group requires a bit of literary knowledge, specifically centered around the classic fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen.
Blue Category: A linguistic challenge that focuses on phonetic quirks rather than definitions, specifically, words with a silent ‘L.’
NYT Connections #917 challenges players to group 16 words into four categories. Each category requires logic, careful observation, and sometimes outside-the-box thinking. The puzzle uses color-coded difficulty levels: Yellow (easy), Blue, Green, and Purple (hard). Today’s words involve synonyms, silent letters, fairy tale characters, and fictional pigs, providing a mix of straightforward and tricky connections.
Here are the four categories and hints to help you solve today’s puzzle:
Yellow: Heap with praise
Blue: Words with a silent letter
Green: Characters from Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales
Purple: Fictional pigs
These hints will guide you through the puzzle:
Yellow (Easy): Look for words meaning to praise or flatter.
Blue: Focus on words that include a silent “L”.
Green: Think of well-known Hans Christian Andersen story characters.
Purple (Hard): Consider famous fictional pigs from literature and cartoons.
Also Read: NYT Connections Hints and Answers for December 13, 2025
Here are the correct groups for today’s puzzle:
Yellow – Heap with praise: Fawn, Flatter, Gush, Praise
Blue – Silent “L”: Calf, Chalk, Colonel, Would
Green – Hans Christian Andersen characters: Duckling, Emperor, Mermaid, Princess
Purple – Fictional pigs: Babe, Napoleon, Piglet, Porky
Today’s Connections puzzle balanced simple associations and trickier connections. The Yellow group was fairly easy, focusing on praise-related words. The Blue group required attention to spelling quirks like silent letters.
Green challenged solvers to recall fairy tale characters, while the Purple group demanded knowledge of fictional pigs from books and cartoons. Red herrings like Calf or Piglet initially misled players, making the puzzle a satisfying mental exercise.
Also Read: NYT Connections Hints and Answers for December 12, 2025 (Puzzle #915)
NYT Connections #917 offered a delightful mix of literal connections, wordplay, and pop culture references. By combining synonyms, spelling tricks, fairy tale knowledge, and fictional characters, today’s puzzle was both entertaining and stimulating, keeping players engaged until the very end.