Find the links between the words to win today’s game of Connections.
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Looking for Wednesday’s NYT Connections hints and answers instead? You can find them here:
Hey, gang! I hope you’re having a fantastic week so far.
I have to say, since I started taking vitamins more regularly, I feel like I have much more energy. That’s definitely a good thing! Not that I drink a ton of coffee, but I’m much less likely to turn to caffeine to perk me up right now.
Keeping up with these vitamins, probiotics and so on is one of the best decisions I’ve made in a while as I try to better prioritize my health.
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 Thursday, March 20, 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 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…
- GENIE
- BUNGEE
- STRAIT
- VOCAL
- SHIP
- EXTENSION
- DIRECT
- MESSAGE
- LOUD
- SOUND
- SPINAL
- CHANNEL
- UMBILICAL
- BAY
- LIGHTNING
- FRANK
And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:
- Yellow group — state a strong opinion openly
- Green group — like an inlet or bog
- Blue group — like phone or twine
- Purple group — like beer or feelings
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 — outspoken
- Green group — bodies of water
- Blue group — types of cord
- Purple group — things in bottles
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 — outspoken (DIRECT, FRANK, LOUD, VOCAL)
- Green group — bodies of water (BAY, CHANNEL, SOUND, STRAIT)
- Blue group — types of cord (BUNGEE, EXTENSION, SPINAL, UMBILICAL)
- Purple group — things in bottles (GENIE, LIGHTNING, MESSAGE, SHIP)
No perfect game today, but I can’t be too mad since my overall streak is up to 23 wins. Here’s how I fared:
I got caught by a red herring immediately with a guess of UMBILICAL, BUNGEE, SPINAL and VOCAL as in types of cord. That put me one away from a group. I figured that EXTENSION would have to be in there, but I didn’t see which one it would replace.
I put those to one side for a bit as I spotted the greens and squared those away. We had a sort of similar group last month with homophones of bodies of water.
After that, my brain drew a link between VOCAL and FRANK, which guided me toward the yellows. By process of elimination, I had the blues.
That left the purples, for which I did figure out the connection before submitting it. So I nearly had a perfect game, but not quite.
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 Friday’s game if you need them.
P.S. I often like to surprise you with these recommendations, but I’m gonna have to go with an exceedingly obvious one today.
I can’t say I love The Police, but the band does have some absolutely cracking songs. “Roxanne” is probably my favorite, but since there was a reference to it on today’s grid, I feel obligated to select “Message in a Bottle.”
That guitar riff is unforgettable – the tone and the way Andy Summers floats across the fretboard gives me the sense of feeling lost and alone, which dovetails with the lyrics. A beautifully constructed song, from top to bottom:
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.
