By Contributor,Kris Holt

Copyright forbes

Find the links between the words to win today’s game of Connections.

Each day’s game of NYT Connections goes live at midnight local time. Before we get to today’s Connections hints and answers, here’s what you missed on Wednesday:
ForbesNYT Connections Today: Hints, Answers For Wednesday, September 24By Kris Holt
Hey there, Connectors! I hope you’ve had a wonderful week so far!

I recently stumbled upon a talk from last year (though this video was only published a few weeks ago) by several NY Times workers, who broke down the process of developing a new game.

They used Strands as the main example, but there’s a bit of Connections chat too. An early version of the game offered players eight chances to find the right groups. That’s too many lives for Connections!

The talk gets a big technical for a couple of minutes halfway through – it’s primarily for game developers, after all. Still, I thought it gave a very interesting insight into the philosophy of how these games are made:

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Before we start, I want to mention the great community we have on Discord, where we chat about Connections, the rest of the NYT games and all kinds of other stuff. It’s a fun hangout spot, and you’re welcome to hang out with us.

Discord is also the best way to give me feedback about the column. I don’t look at the comments or Twitter much. You can also read my weekend editions of this column at my newsletter, Pastimes.

Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Thursday, September 25 are coming right up.

How To Play NYT Connections

Connections is a free New York Times daily word game that you can play on the NYT’s website or Games app. If you have an NYT All Access or Games subscription, you can access the Connections archive, which includes every previous game.

Connections presents you with a grid of 16 words (sometimes phrases, symbols or numbers). The aim is to arrange them into four groups of four. You don’t know how they hit together or what the category for each group is: that’s what you have to figure out.

There’s only one correct solution and there are often red herrings. You can guess incorrectly three times. A fourth wrong guess, and it’s game over.

Each group is color coded. The yellow group is usually the easiest to deduce, followed by blue, green and purple. Often, the yellow and green groups have synonyms, the blues have cultural references and the purples have some kind of wordplay involved. But this is not a hard and fast rule. Be ready for curveballs – part of the fun of Connections is in how the NYT shakes things up to keep you on your toes.

As with Wordle and similar games, it’s easy to share results with your friends using an emoji-based grid. The game tracks your progress too.

Many players take pride in having long win streaks or getting a reverse rainbow – correctly guessing the purple, blue, green and yellow groups in that order with no mistakes. That adds an extra little challenge.

Today’s NYT Connections Hints

Scroll slowly! I’ll first give you a list of today’s words, then a hint for each category. After that, I’ll reveal one word that goes into each group. Then I’ll tell you the category names, followed by the full answers.

Today’s 16 words are…

GREEK/ROMAN GOD

PROGRESSIVE

FICTIONAL BOXER

GOOD SHEPHERD

And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:

🟨 Yellow group — Democrats, ostensibly

🟩 Green group — my fave is a double scoop of chocolate and salted butter, FYI

🟦 Blue group — third wheel, odyssey and instigators would all fit in here

🟪 Purple group — Achilles would surely have lived longer if not for his intervention

NYT Connections – One Answer Per Group

Need some extra help?

Be warned: we’re starting to get into spoiler territory.

Let’s take a look at one answer for each group.

Here we go…

🟨 Yellow group — LEFT

🟩 Green group — SHAKE

🟦 Blue group — GOOD SHEPHERD

🟪 Purple group — THEATER

Today’s NYT Connections Groups

Today’s Connections groups are…

🟨 Yellow group — left-leaning, politically

🟩 Green group — ice cream parlor orders

🟦 Blue group — Matt Damon movies, with “The”

🟪 Purple group — named “Apollo”

Today’s NYT Connections Answers

Spoiler alert! Don’t scroll any further down the page until you’re ready to find out today’s Connections answers.

This is your last chance to look away.

This is your final warning!

Today’s Connections answers are…

🟨 Yellow group — left-leaning, politically (BLUE, LEFT, LIBERAL, PROGRESSIVE)

🟩 Green group — ice cream parlor orders (CONE, CUP, SHAKE, SPLIT)

🟦 Blue group — Matt Damon movies, with “The” (DEPARTED, GOOD SHEPHERD, MARTIAN, RAINMAKER)

🟪 Purple group — named “Apollo” (FICTIONAL BOXER, GREEK/ROMAN GOD, SPACECRAFT, THEATER)

I found this to be a pretty straightforward one, but it’s certainly one of those that requires a bit of cultural knowledge.

GREEK/ROMAN GOD and FICTIONAL BOXER (Apollo Creed) made the purples abundantly clear to me from the jump. Likewise with DEPARTED and MARTIAN for the blues.

Phew, okay. My first shot at the reverse rainbow in a while. I’d have more luck with that in general if I didn’t just guess groups as soon as I saw them, but going goblin mode with this game is more fun for me.

Anyway, I saw the lefty words right away, and understood the ice cream category as well. Unfortunately, I guessed wrong. I got the yellows, then the greens. So close!

Another perfect game brings my overall streak up to 209 wins in a row. Here’s my grid for today:

That’s all there is to it for today’s Connections clues and answers. Be sure to check my blog tomorrow for hints and the solution for Friday’s game if you need them.

P.S. I haven’t seen The Good Shepherd or The Rainmaker, but I can definitely recommend The Martian and The Departed. Both are very good films:

Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Be kind to yourself and each other! Call someone you love!

Please follow my blog for more coverage of NYT Connections and other word games, and even some video game news, insights and analysis. It helps me out a lot! Sharing this column with other people who play Connections would be appreciated too. You can also read my weekend editions of this column at my newsletter, Pastimes.

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