Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need clues.
What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc's Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.
Marc is TechRadar’s Global Editor in Chief and has been obsessed with Wordle and its ilk for more than two years. He's authored dozens of articles on the game for TechRadar, including a daily today's Wordle answer column and a detailed analysis of the most common letters in Wordle in every position. He's also played every Wordle ever and only lost once and yes, he takes it all too seriously.
NYT Connections today (game #546) - today's words
Today's NYT Connections words are…
- SANDWICH
- CATERPILLAR
- SHOEHORN
- SEOUL
- SLUG
- WRAP
- WEDGE
- SOCK
- PUMA
- BELT
- METTLE
- DOVE
- INDY
- GREYHOUND
- BLOW
- SQUEEZE
NYT Connections today (game #546) - hint #1 - group hints
What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?
- Yellow: So you wanna be a boxer?
- Green: No space left
- Blue: Branded creatures
- Purple: Sounds like sounds
Need more clues?
We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…
NYT Connections today (game #546) - hint #2 - group answers
What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: PUNCH
- GREEN: CRAM
- BLUE: COMPANIES NAMED AFTER ANIMALS
- PURPLE: HOMOPHONES OF MUSIC GENRES
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Connections today (game #546) - the answers
The answers to today's Connections, game #546, are…
- YELLOW: PUNCH BELT, BLOW, SLUG, SOCK
- GREEN: CRAM SANDWICH, SHOEHORN, SQUEEZE, WEDGE
- BLUE: COMPANIES NAMED AFTER ANIMALS CATERPILLAR, DOVE, GREYHOUND, PUMA
- PURPLE: HOMOPHONES OF MUSIC GENRES INDY, METTLE, SEOUL, WRAP
- My rating: Easy
- My score: Perfect
Today was one of those magical green-light days when Connections made perfect sense. Usually I'm floundering around for the fourth word, falling into the red herring traps, or failing to see the obvious before my eyes. But today it just clicked.
After watching Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson last month, I'm well versed in the rich variety of ways to describe hitting someone – or indeed not hitting someone. That led me to yellow, PUNCH, while green (CRAM) was only a little harder.
As always, blue and purple were harder, but having owned a pair back in the day, it was CATERPILLAR boots I thought of first before the multi-legged insect – making it easy to make the link with other COMPANIES NAMED AFTER ANIMALS with the addition of PUMA, GREYHOUND, and DOVE. Had I not been so familiar with the boot brand, I would have been looking for another insect to go along with SLUG.
Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Saturday, 7 December, game #545)
- YELLOW: THINK OF TOGETHER AFFILIATE, ASSOCIATE, EQUATE, RELATE
- GREEN: WAYS TO ATTRACT FISH BAIT, CHUM, FLY, LURE
- BLUE: W.N.B.A. TEAMS LIBERTY, STORM, SUN, WINGS
- PURPLE: LONG___ BOW, FELLOW, HORN, LEGS
What is NYT Connections?
NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.
On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.
It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.
It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
