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Today’s NYT Connections puzzle includes tricky homophones, making the Purple group very difficult to solve
Yellow, Green, and Blue groups provide hints that guide solvers efficiently through the puzzle.
Recognizing word relationships, synonyms, and homophones is essential to solving the puzzle successfully.
The NYT Connections puzzle for Saturday is definitely showing its teeth. The grid for today presents one of the most complicated and perplexing purple groups seen in weeks. The yellow and green categories might seem friendly, but the purple round has a level of deception that can even puzzle even the most experienced solvers. Let’s go through the hints, clues, and final answers for NYT Connections today, October 18, 2025.
NYT Connections is a word association puzzle from The New York Times. Every day, solvers get 16 words and have to sort them into four groups of four that have a shared link. The categories can be anything from easy wordplay to pop culture references or linguistic twists.
The difficulty of each puzzle follows a color pattern: Yellow is the easiest, Green and Blue sit in the middle, and Purple is the most challenging. A player gets four chances to complete the board before the game ends.
Here are the 16 words from NYT Connections today:
HAND
HOCK
PEDAL
SKATE
BACON
CELL
PICKLE
CAGE
DODGE
COAST
FORD
BREEZE
CRUISE
RACQUET
FLOAT
TRAYED
At first glance, a few words appear deceptively simple until their connections start to overlap, creating plenty of opportunities for misdirection.
Yellow Group – Smooth sailing
Green Group – If you can dodge a wrench
Blue Group – The A-list
Purple Group – Get out your wallet
Each clue pushes solvers toward subtle associations, especially the purple hint, which turns out to be more complex than it first appears.
Yellow: FLOAT
Green: PICKLE
Blue: FORD
Purple: TRAYED
These single-word hints offer small nudges without giving away too much, serving as guideposts for those attempting to maintain their solving streak.
Also Read: NYT Connections for Beginners: How to Play and Win
Yellow Group – Glide
BREEZE, COAST, FLOAT, SKATE
Green Group – Words Before “Ball” in Sports
DODGE, HAND, PICKLE, RACQUET
Blue Group – Prolific Actors
BACON, CAGE, CRUISE, FORD
Purple Group – Homophones of Synonyms for “Vend”
CELL, HOCK, PEDAL, TRAYED
The puzzle of today mixes light and tricky elements. The yellow and green groups draw on familiar associations - movement and sports terms - while the blue group manages to cleverly hide famous last names as common words.
The purple group connects homophones of words like "sell," "hawk," and "peddle," making it one of the most difficult. The fourth entry, TRAYED, confuses the solvers with unusual wordplay, leaving them scratching their heads.
This kind of difficulty increase is a clear indication that NYT Connections continues to surprise its players. The layers of meaning make it rewarding for those who thrive on linguistic nuance and pattern recognition.
Also Read: Today’s NYT Strands Hints and Answer for 17 October 2025 (Puzzle #593)
The October 18 NYT Connections puzzle is a dazzling mix of simplicity and sophistication that lies along its sharp borders. The glide-themed yellow group has an airy feel, and the sports and celebrity themes in green and blue come to a fun middle ground. However, the purple category is where today’s game earns its reputation for inventive and challenging linguistic twist that tests both logic and lateral thinking at the same time.
With the continuous development of NYT Connections, today’s puzzle is a reminder to the solvers why the game is still a daily brainteaser that is worth revisiting. Whether playing with words, catching cultural cues, or decoding difficult homophones, today’s challenge is one of the year’s most intricate offerings.
