Looking for Friday’s NYT Connections hints and answers instead? You can find them here:
Hey, everyone! Welcome to the weekend. Remember to change those clocks if daylight savings time is kicking in for you!
First, an apology. For yesterday’s purple clue, I initially wrote that it was “like ‘fit’ or ‘current.’” That didn’t actually make sense given that the group was fruits with their second letter changed. I had fig and currant in mind. I changed the hint after a few people flagged the error.
My deepest apologies for my mistake and causing any confusion. I want to make this the best Connections hints column around and I hate to make any flubs that diminish that. Your trust and continued support matter a lot to me, and I’ll always be as transparent as possible when I slip up.
Before we begin, I’ve set up a discussion group for NYT Connections and this column on Discord. We have a great little community over there and we chat about more than NYT games. Everyone who has joined has been lovely. It’s a fun hangout spot.
It’s also the best way to give me any feedback about the column, especially on the rare (okay, not that rare) occasions that I mess something up.
Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Saturday, March 8, are coming right up.
How To Play Connections
Connections is a free, popular New York Times daily word game. You get a new puzzle at midnight every day. You can play on the NYT website or Games app.
You’re presented with a grid of 16 words. Your task is to arrange them into four groups of four by figuring out the links between them. The groups could be things like items you can click, names for research study participants or words preceded by a body part.
There’s only one solution for each puzzle, and you’ll need to be careful when it comes to words that might fit into more than one category. You can shuffle the words to perhaps help you see links between them.
Each group is color coded. The yellow group is usually the easiest to figure out, blue and green fall in the middle, and the purple group is usually the most difficult one. The purple group often involves wordplay.
Select four words you think go together and press Submit. If you make a guess and you’re incorrect, you’ll lose a life. If you’re close to having a correct group, you might see a message telling you that you’re one word away from getting it right, but you’ll still need to figure out which one to swap.
If you make four mistakes, it’s game over. Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen with the help of some hints, and, if you’re really struggling, today’s Connections answers. As with Wordle and other similar games, it’s easy to share results with your friends on social media and group chats.
If you have an NYT All Access or Games subscription, you can access the publication’s Connections archive. This includes every previous game of Connections, so you can go back and play any of those that you have missed.
Aside from the first 60 games or so, you should be able to find my hints for each grid via Google if you need them! Just click here and add the date of the game for which you need clues or the answers to the search query.
What Are Today’s Connections Hints?
Scroll slowly! Just after the hints for each of today’s Connections groups, I’ll reveal what the groups are without immediately telling you which words go into them.
Today’s 16 words are…
- SPIN
- SHADOW
- EXCELLENT
- JUKE
- TOTALLY
- FAKE
- COTTON
- SOAP
- MOCK
- BOGUS
- CHATTER
- IMITATION
- DELICATE
- DUDE
- ARTIFICIAL
- BULKY
And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:
- Yellow group — phony
- Green group — fabric cleaning options
- Blue group — “no way” and “catch you later” would work here
- Purple group — “beat” and “hot” would fit in this group
What Are Today’s Connections Groups?
Need some extra help?
Be warned: we’re starting to get into spoiler territory.
Today’s Connections groups are…
- Yellow group — faux
- Green group — washing machine cycles/settings
- Blue group — words frequently said on the Bill and Ted movies
- Purple group — ____box
What Are Today’s 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 final warning!
Today’s Connections answers are…
- Yellow group — faux (ARTIFICIAL, FAKE, IMITATION, MOCK)
- Green group — washing machine cycles/settings (BULKY, COTTON, DELICATE, SPIN)
- Blue group — words frequently said on the Bill and Ted movies (BOGUS, DUDE, EXCELLENT, TOTALLY)
- Purple group — ____box (CHATTER, JUKE, SHADOW, SOAP)
No perfect game this time around, but my streak now sits at 11 wins. Here’s how I fared:
🟪🟩🟪🟪
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟩🟩🟩🟩
I thought I had the purples out of the gate with JUKE, SOAP and CHATTER, as in types of “____box.” But I didn’t see what would go with them, so I took a gamble with COTTON. I was one away from a group at that point. (JUKE could have gone with SPIN and FAKE, as in ways to evade someone, but we just had a group of “evade” words recently).
With the reverse rainbow dream dead for yet another day, I decided to play it safer. I was about to go with a guess of FAKE, MOCK, BOGUS and IMITATION, but I realized at the last moment that ARTIFICAL was another option to go with those.
However, DUDE and EXCELLENT clicked together, and I was able to get the blues. With BOGUS eliminated as an option, I then got the yellows.
That then made the greens jump out at me, which meant I had the purples as well. My initial instinct was correct, but SHADOW was the missing word I was looking for.
The green group was a bunch of washing machine-related words. That was a handy reminder for me to call my landlord to have my washing machine fixed (I think it’s busted because the rubber seal on the gasket is broken). Thanks, Connections!
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 Sunday’s game if you need them.
P.S. I rewatched the Bill and Ted movies year or two ago, some time after third one came out. They’re a lot of fun and the first one could actually help get younger viewers more interested in history. Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure might help you introduce older kids to the brilliance of George Carlin too:
P.P.S. My other option for today’s recommendation was “Man In A Box” by Alice In Chains. Perhaps another time!
Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Call someone you love!
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