Looking for Sunday’s Connections hints and answers instead? You can find them here:
Hey, gang! I hope you had a wonderful weekend and that you’re ready to make the most of this week.
I was recently fortunate enough to score an upgrade on a long-haul flight. For the first time in my life, I turned left when boarding a plane. Business class is so much of an improvement over economy that it’s not even funny.
I had a lie-flat seat with a built-in massager and lumbar adjustment, a three-course meal with metal utensils and as much as I wanted in terms of drinks and snacks (I didn’t go overboard, just two glasses of wine and a little port). I never want to fly economy again, which stinks at the best of times, but even more so as someone larger.
I will be doing all of the travel hacks and eating nothing but ramen for the rest of my life if it means I only fly business class (or even first) from now on.
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 Monday, January 13, 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…
- BANK
- PARK
- BOOK
- STORE
- RESERVE
- TRAIN
- SCHOOL
- POOL
- EARTH
- SIGNAL
- INCH
- COACH
- TURN
- GLOW
- GUIDE
- BRAKE
And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:
- Yellow group — help someone learn
- Green group — a large quantity of something
- Blue group — D.M.V. essentials
- Purple group — “brain” or “silk” 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 — teach
- Green group — cache
- Blue group — driving instructor directives
- Purple group — ____ worm
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 — teach (COACH, GUIDE, SCHOOL, TRAIN)
- Green group — cache (BANK, POOL, RESERVE, STORE)
- Blue group — driving instructor directives (BRAKE, PARK, SIGNAL, TURN)
- Purple group — ____ worm (BOOK, EARTH, GLOW, INCH)
A fairly easy game to help me get back on track after losing a week-long streak yesterday. Here’s how I fared:
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟩🟩🟩🟩
Not a whole lot of brain power needed for this one, thankfully. COACH led me into the yellows, while BRAKE and PARK did the same for the blues. From there, it wasn’t difficult to spot the greens.
I submitted the purple words first and, yes, I did figure out the connection before doing so. A bookworm is both a term for someone who loves books and any insect that chews through tomes (it’s also the name of a classic word game).
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 Tuesday’s game if you need them.
P.S. I first learned about Daði Freyr when he supported The Darkness and Busted at a show last summer. I enjoyed his set very much andhis cover of Atomic Kitten’s “Whole Again” was the highlight. Freyr performed a truncated version at the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest final, but the full version is, as the kids say, a banger:
Have a great day! Make sure to drink enough water! 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.
