Find the links between the words to win today’s game of Connections.
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Looking for Friday’s NYT Connections hints and answers instead? You can find them here:
Hey, gang! I hope your weekend is off to a great start.
I hope it’s a restful one too, because I just realized there’s something a little ominous on the horizon. We’re only a few days away from April 1.
You may recall what went down in Connections on that date last year — the grid was full of emoji, rather than words. It was a fun one!
I have to assume similar trickery is afoot this time around. So make the most of your weekend to rest up and get your brains ready so we all keep our streaks intact through the mischief. In any case, I’ve got your back. 
Before we begin, I’ve set up a discussion group for NYT Connections and this column on Discord. We have a great little community over there and we chat about more than NYT games. Everyone who has joined has been lovely. It’s a fun hangout spot.
It’s also the best way to give me any feedback about the column, especially on the rare(!) occasions that I mess something up since I don’t look at the comments or Twitter much.
Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Saturday, March 29, are coming right up.
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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 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…
- SILVER
- BIKE
- BOXER
- PANAMA
- BERMUDA
- CLUE
- MAN
- COMMANDO
- CRYSTAL
- BRAZIL
- WITNESS
- CHINA
- PLAN
- CARGO
- LINEN
- CANAL
And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:
- Yellow group — often found at establishments with a Michelin star
- Green group — like denim and chino
- Blue group — parts of a well-known phrase that could go either way
- Purple group — like cocoon and fletch
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 — materials associated with fancy dining
- Green group — kinds of shorts
- Blue group — nouns in a famous palindrome
- Purple group — movies from 1985
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 — materials associated with fancy dining (CHINA, CRYSTAL, LINEN, SILVER)
- Green group — kinds of shorts (BERMUDA, BIKE, BOXER, CARGO)
- Blue group — nouns in a famous palindrome (CANAL, MAN, PANAMA, PLAN)
- Purple group — movies from 1985 (BRAZIL, CLUE, COMMANDO, WITNESS)
Hey now, a perfect game brought my streak up to 32 wins, matching a personal best! Here’s how I fared:
A bit of an international flavor to today’s game, with several country names in the mix. Still, I recognized right away that BERMUDA was a reference to shorts thanks to its close proximity to BIKE. That meant I had the greens locked away swiftly.
The rearranged grid plopped BRAZIL and WITNESS next to each other, and I clocked that those were movies. CLUE and COMMANDO crystallized that they were ’80s movies. Or, as I found out when I submitted those, they’re specifically from 1985.
With the grid down to eight words, the blues jumped out. The palindrome these words refer to is “A man, a plan, a canal – Panama!” That’s a reference to the Panama Canal.
That meant the yellows were left, and those were straightforward enough – though it was a little odd as we had a very similar group a few days ago. A new personal record streak beckons tomorrow.
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 Sunday’s game if you need them.
P.S. Somewhat shamefully, Witness is the only movie from the purple group I’ve actually watched. It was a long time ago and I remember enjoying it, but I’m hazy on the details so I’m reluctant to recommend it today.
Instead, let’s go with one of my favorite movies from 1985, The Goonies. I love this one to bits. Really looking forward to when my partner’s kid is old enough for it. What a great adventure movie:
Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Call someone you love!
If you’re so inclined, please follow my blog for more coverage of NYT Connections and other word games and even some video game news, insights and analysis. It helps me out a lot! Sharing this column with other people who play Connections would be appreciated too Also, follow me on Bluesky! It’s fun there.
