Find the links between the words to win today’s game of Connections.
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Looking for Friday’s Connections hints and answers instead? You can find them here:
Hey there, folks! Welcome to the weekend.
I felt like watching a really silly movie the other day. Given that I’ve been watching Severance and Ben Stiller is a director on both projects, I ended up turning to Tropic Thunder.
It had been eight years since I last watched the film (at least according to Letterboxd) and I forgot just how ridiculous it is. Tropic Thunder is a flawed comedy that uses shock tactics, such as blackface and its treatment of developmental disabilities, to poke fun at method acting and Hollywood as a whole.
It’s a fascinating thing to go back to for many reasons. Don’t get me wrong, it’s very funny in certain places, but there are lots of reasons why Tropic Thunder wouldn’t be made these days. Beyond the cultural aspects of it, big-budget studios comedies are rare beasts in the streaming era. But that’s one reason why I’m looking forward to watching Happy Gilmore 2.
Before we begin, I’ve set up a discussion group for Connections and this column on Discord. You can chat about each game (and other topics) with me and other folks. I’m always interested to find out how other people approach the game, so join us! It’s fun.
It’s also the best way to give me any feedback about the column, especially on the rare(!) occasions that I mess something up.
Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Saturday, February 15, 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 for each grid 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…
- POPULAR
- EMOTIONAL
- CHEESE
- DISH
- PAN
- RETURN
- SPILL
- CUP
- TELL
- COMMAND
- ALTERNATIVE
- OPTION
- SHORT
- PROGRESSIVE
- CONTROL
- BLAB
And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:
- Yellow group — share gossip
- Green group — you might see these in front of you right now
- Blue group — often encountered at Download, Lolla or Warped
- Purple group — “fruit” and “blackout” would fit here
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 — divulge
- Green group — words on a Mac keyboard
- Blue group — words shortened in rock genres
- Purple group — ____cake
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 — divulge (BLAB, DISH, SPILL, TELL)
- Green group — words on a Mac keyboard (COMMAND, CONTROL, OPTION, RETURN)
- Blue group — words shortened in rock genres (ALTERNATIVE, EMOTIONAL, POPULAR, PROGRESSIVE)
- Purple group — ____cake (CHEESE, CUP, PAN, SHORT)
I would have had a perfect game here but for one mistake at the outset. Nevertheless, my overall streak is up to nine wins. Here’s how I fared:
I had a pretty good idea about the yellows, but other words grabbed my attention. I was pretty sure there was a group of musical subgenres here, so I tried a guess of POPULAR, CHEESE, ALTERNATIVE and PROGRESSIVE. Not quite right, but I was one away from a group.
Rather than try to brute force my way to the answer (even though I should have figured out the missing ingredient was EMOTIONAL), I took the safer route. I was right with my gut feeling about the yellows.
The greens were up next, a group that was made much easier after I purchased my first Mac last year. I then corrected my error to get the blues (you might recognize them more as alt, emo, pop and prog). That left the purples, for which I did figure out the delicious connection, for another victory.
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. I’m gonna have to go with an emo song today, I say as I drape my hair over my eyes. And when I think of emo, I think of My Chemical Romance.
“Welcome To The Black Parade” might be the go-to choice here, and it’s a fine song. But my favorite MCR track, by a mile, is “Helena.” It’s pretty much a perfect emo song:
Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Call someone you love!
If you’re so inclined, please do follow my blog for more coverage of Connections and other word games and even some video game news, insights and analysis. It helps me out a lot! Also, follow me on Bluesky! It’s fun there.
