Find connections between words and win today’s connection game.
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Looking for Wednesday Connection tips and answers instead? You can find them here:
hey there! I hope you are having a great week so far.
Winter weather has just started here, but I’m already looking forward to spring. We already know that we won’t go outside any more than necessary until mid-April.
Before we get into it, I’ve started a discussion group for this column with Connections on Discord. You can chat with me and others about each game (and other topics). We’re always interested in seeing how other people approach games, so we’d love to hear from you. It’s fun.
This is also the best way to give me feedback on the column. Especially if, in the rare(!) case, you do something wrong.
Today’s NYT Connections tips and answers for Thursday, January 9th will be published soon.
How to play connections
Connections is the New York Times’ popular free daily word game. Get a new puzzle every day at midnight. You can play on the NYT website or in the game app.
A grid of 16 words will appear. Your task is to find connections between them and place them into 4 groups of 4. A group might be a clickable item, the name of a research study participant, or a word preceded by a body part.
Each puzzle has only one solution, and you need to be careful about words that can fit into more than one category. Shuffling words makes it easier to see connections between words.
Each group is color coded. The yellow group is usually the easiest to find, the blue and green are in between, and the purple group is the hardest. The purple group has a lot of wordplay.
Please select four words that you think would be easy to combine and press (Send). If you guess wrong, you will lose your life. If you are close to the correct group, you may receive a message letting you know that you are just one word away from being in the correct group, but you will need to decide which group to swap.
If you make a mistake four times, the game is over. Use some tips to prevent that from happening. If you’re really stuck, today’s Connections has the answer. Similar to Wordle and other similar games, you can easily share your results with your friends on social media and group chats.
If you have a NYT All Access or Games subscription, you can access the publication’s Connections archive. This includes all previous Connections games, so you can go back and play any games you missed.
Aside from the first 60 games or so, you should be able to find hints for each grid via Google if you want. Click here to add the date of the match you need a clue or answer to your search query.
What is today’s connection tip?
Please scroll slowly! Immediately after each Connections group tip today, we’ll reveal what the group is without immediately explaining what words it contains.
Today’s 16 words are…
Shining Finance Table It Stands Stay to It See Stall comes from Legal Heal Booth Sales
Here are today’s Connections group tips:
Yellow group — where you buy things at fairs and bazaars Green group — animal descriptions Blue group — the department that keeps things running smoothly Purple group — Anthem Closer
What is the Today’s Connections group?
Need additional support?
Be warned, we’re starting to get into spoiler territory.
Today’s Connections groups are:
Yellow Group — Market Vendor Spot Green Group — Dog Command Blue Group — Company Department Purple Group — The Last Words of “America the Beautiful”
What is the answer to today’s connection?
Spoiler alert! Don’t scroll further down the page until you are ready to find today’s Connections answers.
This is your final warning!
The answer to today’s connection is…
Yellow group — vendor spots in the market (booths, stalls, stands, tables) Green group — dog commands (come, heel, sit, stay) Blue group — corporate departments (finance, IT, legal, Sales) Purple Group — Last Words “America the Beautiful” (FROM, SEA, TO, SHINING)
Expectations for a perfect game continue, but the most important overall streak extends to five. Here’s how I dealt with it.
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟨🟩🟩🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟨🟨🟨🟨
My first thought was that SHINING, STAND, and IT would be part of a series of Stephen King novels, but I had no idea what fit into that (I I’m not that much of a fan!). It seemed like we could do LEGAL, FINANCE, and Sales together.
The only possibility I was in SHINING was Purple after all. I’m not American, so I can’t really explain how that came to me, but I was pretty happy with it. I guess “America the Beautiful” is ingrained in my head after hearing it played at WrestleMania for decades.
After that high came the low. I thought STAY, TABLE, STALL, and SIT would form a group, but that was not the case! Not a single person is left behind. The dream of a reverse rainbow will end in one day. But after just a few seconds, the greenery hit me like a cold shower on a hot day.
My initial suspicions about FINANCE, SALES, and LEGAL turned out to be correct when I discovered that IT was an initial, not a word. Now the blue is sorted out and the rest is yellow.
Considering that yesterday’s yellow also referred to a part of a company or organization, I’m a little surprised by today’s blue. However, these are relevant to specific divisions of the company.
That’s all for today’s Connections tips and answers. If you want tips and solutions for Friday’s game, be sure to check out my blog tomorrow.
PS I wanted to choose a remix of “Man in Finance” today, but it’s one I’ve already used, so I try to avoid repeating recommendations. But I’ve never recommended The Shining before, so let’s go with that.
Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Martin Luther King Jr.’s novel is one of the best horror films ever made. This is a great work of art, but it came at a great cost to the many people involved in its creation.
Have a nice day! Make sure to drink enough water! Let’s call someone you like!
If you’d like, follow my blog for more news, insight, and analysis on Connections and other word games, as well as video games. Very helpful! Also follow Bluesky! That’s what’s fun about it.
