Looking for Thursday’s Connections hints and answers instead? You can find them here:
Hey, everyone! Thankfully, the weekend is almost here. I think we could all use a breather. I hope you can spend some time with loved ones, or at the very least, doing whatever positive things bring you comfort and fulfillment.
Before we get going, I’ve started a discussion group for Connections and this column on Discord. You can chat about each game (and other topics) with me and other folks. I’m always interested to find out how other people approach the game, so join us! It’s fun.
It’s also the best way to give me any feedback about the column, especially on the rare(!) occasions that I mess something up.
Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Friday, January 24, 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…
- LITTER
- NICOTINE
- ROUGH
- TRADE
- CABBAGE
- BROOD
- LINE
- POINT
- REFLECT
- STARE
- INTERRUPT
- WORK
- CRAFT
- MUSE
- SOUL
- PONDER
And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:
- Yellow group — think it over, mull
- Green group — that’s not nice
- Blue group — for the breadwinners
- Purple group — “vegetable” and “software” would fit in here
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 — contemplate
- Green group — rude things to do
- Blue group — vocation
- Purple group — ____ patch
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 — contemplate (BROOD, MUSE, PONDER, REFLECT)
- Green group — rude things to do (INTERRUPT, LITTER, POINT, STARE)
- Blue group — vocation (CRAFT, LINE, TRADE, WORK)
- Purple group — ____ patch (CABBAGE, NICOTINE, ROUGH, SOUL)
Nine perfect games in a row. Whoa. That has to be a personal best. The overall win streak is up to 12 games. Here’s how I fared:
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟦🟦🟦🟦
A regular ol’ rainbow today.
The only real red herring I spotted was LITTER and BROOD, but there was nothing doing with those.
I had a pretty solid idea about the first three groups, but I didn’t make a concerted attempt to put them in any particular order. The yellows were straightforward enough. I was reasonably confident about the greens, save for LITTER, but I took a stab at it and that worked out.
Similarly, I wasn’t 100% certain that LINE should go with the blues but I gambled and it paid off. I didn’t deduce out the purple connection and probably should have, but hey, I didn’t have to. It’s been a long week and my brain deserves a little break.
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 Saturday’s game if you need them.
P.S. I was briefly tempted to recommend “Feel Good Hit of the Summer” by Queens of the Stone Age (a song I enjoy very much) today given the presence of NICOTINE but, uh, that seems a little inappropriate. A Muse song might have been fitting, but nah, I feel the need to go with a track from one of my very favorite bands.
Songs for the Deaf is my favorite album of all time, but I’ll run with a slightly deeper cut from Rated R. “In The Fade” isn’t a structurally complex song, though I love it deeply. It’s groovy as heck and Mark Lanegan’s voice elevates it even further. Miss that guy:
Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Call someone you love!
If you’re so inclined, please do follow my blog for more coverage of Connections and other word games and even some video game news, insights and analysis. It helps me out a lot! Also, follow me on Bluesky! It’s fun there.
