Each day’s game of NYT Connections goes live at midnight local time. Before today’s NYT Connections hints, here’s what you missed on Wednesday:
Hey there, Connectors! I hope you’ve had a great week so far.
I went down a Wikipedia rabbit hole the other night, and ended up on the page for Kaliningrad. I had no idea until now that it’s nestled between Lithuania and Poland, hundreds of miles away from the rest of Russia.
I consider myself to have a pretty sound level of general knowledge, but this was totally new to me. It turned out to be a good reminder to myself why I write a separate column to explain the Connections answers most days. You can’t assume anyone’s knowledge of a given subject. It’s impossible for any of us to know everything (that’s what Wikipedia is for, after all).
I learn a lot by playing Connections, just like many of you. I really enjoy that. Just like I love being able to learn information and contextualize that for other folks, and to call that process work.
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Before we start, I want to highlight the rad 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 lovely group of folks. You’re more than welcome to join us.
Also, my weekend editions of this column are available over on my newsletter, Pastimes. If you enjoy the intros and recommendations in my Connections columns, I occasionally publish longer pieces along similar lines there as well. I think you’d dig them.
Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Thursday, July 23 are coming right up. Let’s get rolling!
How To Play 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 Word List
Scroll slowly!
After today’s Connections word list, I’ll give you a hint for each category. After that, I’ll reveal one word that goes into each group. Then I’ll reveal the categories, followed by the full answers.
Got it? Cool.
Today’s 16 words are…
- JANGLE
- INTENSE
- ORANGE
- FELINE
- FEBRILE
- BASEBALL
- MARBLE
- APRON
- APPOINT
- TERMINAL
- EXCITED
- RUNWAY
- FRENTIC
- HANGAR
- DEPLANE
- GLOBE
A Hint For Today’s Connections Groups
The hints for today’s Connections categories are:
- 🟨 Yellow group — around and around we go
- 🟩 Green group — not too calm
- 🟦 Blue group — you might see a chapel, lounge or tower here too
- 🟪 Purple group — getting into shape
One Answer For Each Connections Group
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 — ORANGE
- 🟩 Green group — FEBRILE
- 🟦 Blue group — APRON
- 🟪 Purple group — JANGLE
Today’s Connections Categories
Today’s Connections groups are…
- 🟨 Yellow group — spherical things
- 🟩 Green group — in an anxious state
- 🟦 Blue group — parts of an airport
- 🟪 Purple group — ending in geometry terms
What Is Today’s Connections Answer?
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 — spherical things (BASEBALL, GLOBE, MARBLE, ORANGE)
- 🟩 Green group — in an anxious state (EXCITED, FEBRILE, FRENETIC, INTENSE)
- 🟦 Blue group — parts of an airport (APRON, HANGAR, RUNWAY, TERMINAL)
- 🟪 Purple group — ending in geometry terms (APPOINT, DEPLANE, FELINE, JANGLE)
I thought I was being so smart with my first guess. Words that start with abbreviations for the first four months of the year. But that was a red herring.
The spherical things got me started properly after an incorrect guess of airport things (DEPLANE was not one of the words we were looking for!). The greens were next up.
At that point, I realized APRON made sense with the other airport words to get the blues. As I looked closer at the purples, the category became clear before I submitted them.
My streak is now at 508 wins.
How did you get on this time? Here’s my grid:
🟪🟩🟨🟦
🟦🟦🟦🟪
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟪🟪🟪🟪
Want to know more about how everything fits together? Let’s explore today’s game in more depth in my NYT Connections Answers Explained column right here:
Be sure to check my blog tomorrow for hints and the answer for tomorrow’s game of Connections if you need them.
P.S. This is a fascinating video I saw recently that takes a look at how standard musical notation came to be. I was already interested in the subject, but I think this is a terrific example of how to make a topic even more compelling through slick production and strong storytelling:
Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Be kind to yourself and each other! Call someone you love!
Please follow my blog for more NYT Connections hints and help with other word games, and even some video game news, insights and analysis. I’d really appreciate that as it helps me out. If you share this column with others who play Connections, that would be lovely too. You can also read my weekend editions of this column and more of my writing at my newsletter, Pastimes.
