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Captivate, summary, halt, and hidden-animal words form today’s four clever groups.
Puzzle combines straightforward synonyms with subtle wordplay, challenging lateral thinking skills.
Observing patterns and wordplay improves solving speed and accuracy in NYT Connections.
The NYT Connections puzzle for October 14 provides a touch of genius through an easy-to-follow word association game and intricate traps. Today’s test interweaves well-known synonyms with a fun hidden-animal theme, a great way to keep solvers reactive. Some categories are easily recognized, while others need more attention and a little lateral thinking, thereby making this a rewarding puzzle for people with any level of experience, both novices and experts.
NYT Connections is a daily word association game at The New York Times. A 4x4 grid of 16 words is given to players, who must sort them into four groups of four. Each group has a common theme, but the category is not disclosed, thus requiring careful observation and reasoning. Players can make four incorrect guesses before the game is over.
The groups consist of colors: yellow, green, blue, and purple. The yellow and green groups are usually the easiest ones with plain synonyms, whereas the blue and purple groups mostly have idioms, cultural references, or subtle wordplay. All these simple connections and clever twists make the game new and interesting.
The 16 words for October 14, 2025, are:
STEM
EASEL
ABSORB
DIGEST
ANTHER
REVIEW
CHECK
HARK
BRIEF
HOLD
STaunch
LAMA
ENGAGE
CURB
OUTLINE
OCCUPY
Yellow Group — Captivate
Hint: Grab someone’s attention.
One-Word Clue: Engage
Green Group — Summary
Hint: TL;DR, give the key info.
One-Word Clue: Outline
Blue Group — Halt
Hint: Stop or restrain something immediately.
One-Word Clue: Check
Purple Group — Animals Minus Starting Letter
Hint: Words that hide an animal when the first letter is removed.
One-Word Clue: Hark
Yellow Group (Captivate): ABSORB, ENGAGE, HOLD, OCCUPY
Green Group (Summary): BRIEF, DIGEST, OUTLINE, REVIEW
Blue Group (Halt): CHECK, CURB, STAUNCH, STEM
Purple Group (Animals Minus Starting Letter): ANTHER, EASEL, HARK, LAMA
In the case of the purple group, by cutting off the first letter from the words, one gets pANTHER, wEASEL, sHARK, lLAMA. This trickery forces the players to stretch their imagination.
Today’s puzzle combines direct synonyms and intelligent wordplay. The yellow "captivate" group can be seen as very clear once one word is understood, while the green "summary" group is also easy because of obvious synonyms like "brief" and DIGEST. The blue "halt" group also has a clear connection with words that mean "stopping" or "restraining."
The purple group is the most difficult one, and it asks players to reveal pets by dropping the first letter of each word. This kind of thinking suggests a very opposite direction, and it is one of the creative tricks NYT Connections often employs to attract the players. Words like "STEM" or "ANTHER" might at first take one the wrong way, but looking at the pattern does help to overthrow the solution.
The October 14 NYT Connections puzzle combines easy and challenging aspects. Quick wins can be found in the yellow and green groups, while the blue and purple ones require a more careful scan of the puzzle. The animal theme, which is hidden, offers a playful challenge, showing that NYT Connections unites simple logic with clever twists.
A solver who wants to improve needs to develop pattern recognition and wordplay detection. The next puzzle will be much easier and seem more like an intuition than a battle. Today's puzzle is an excellent example of how Connections are not merely about lexicon - they are about identifying relationships, innovative thinking, and having the delightful “aha!” moment when all the pieces fit together.
