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The yellow category groups together words related to questioning or interrogating someone.
The middle categories feature common household items and famous fictional cats.
The purple category hides a clever wordplay twist based on words that begin with kiss terms.
The July 13 edition of NYT Connections presents an engaging combination of logic, language, and cleverness. Today's challenge involves practical thinking across a wide range of themes, keeping the players alert from the start.
The surprise is in the combination of categories. Today, players will find terms related to questioning someone, things that have handles, factional characters, and different words for kisses in the grid. This is a rare mix that brings both delight and confusion. It is a steady mid-tier challenge, neither too easy nor too hard, but very satisfactory once the connections are established.
Connections is the daily puzzle section of The New York Times, which is very popular amongst its readers. Each color indicates a different level of difficulty: yellow for the easiest and purple for the hardest.
Puzzlers must think outside the box, identifying connections that might include categories, word associations, or even prefixes and suffixes. A single incorrect assumption can change the entire puzzle's direction.
Today’s 16-Word List
Let’s check out the words from today’s grid before progressing to the hints and answer section:
BUCKET, PUMP, QUESTION, DRAWER, MUG, UMBRELLA, BUSSIN, KISSER, FIGARO, PUSS, EXAMINE, GRILL, SALEM, TOM, PECKISH, SMACKDOWN
Here are the clues for today’s NYT Connections puzzle. Let’s check out the hints:
Yellow Group: You think of these words when you are considering asking someone questions.
Green Group: These items are extremely common in daily life. Every household has these items.
Blue Group: These words will be easily identified by animation lovers. These cats are massively renowned.
Purple Group: Look for words that are synonyms for kissing.
Group One-Word Hint for Each Group
Still confused about the categories? Here are the one-word hints that you should check for better understanding:
Yellow: EXAMINE
Green: DRAWER
Blue: SALEM
Purple: SMACKDOWN
If you have solved the puzzle, congratulations! However, if you’re still confused, here is the complete solution for the NYT Connection puzzle:
Yellow Group (INTERROGATE): EXAMINE, GRILL, PUMP, QUESTION
Blue Group (THINGS WITH HANDLES): BUCKET, DRAWER, MUG, UMBRELLA
Green Group (FICTIONAL CATS): FIGARO, PUSS, SALEM, TOM
Purple Group (STARTING WITH SMOOCHES): BUSSIN, KISSER, PECKISH, SMACKDOWN
If you have solved today’s puzzle but missed out on a few of the week’s, below are the answers to some of the previous day's NYT Connections:
The July 13 edition of NYT Connections offers a well-balanced mental workout. The combination of everyday words, activities, and subtle wordplay around ‘kisses’ showcases how simple words can hide layered logic.
What makes today’s grid particularly satisfying is its structure. The yellow and green group is still easy, but the purple one presents a twist. Ultimately, grids like this reinforce why Connections continues to attract thousands of players every day. It has turned puzzle sorting into a strategic exercise. Players struggle a bit, but once they solve it, they will walk away with a rewarding ‘wow’ moment.
