Find the links between the words to win today’s game of Connections.
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Looking for Wednesday’s Connections hints and answers instead? You can find them here:
Hey there, gang! I hope your week is going smoothly.
It’s been four days and I still can’t stop thinking about Kendrick Lamar’s superlative performance at the weekend. You know, the one broadcast around the world that had some sports stuff either side?
While I’m cognizant of what I wrote the other day about wanting to spread as much positivity as I can, I do admire some of those who harbor and act upon the deepest of grudges, especially when they’re justifiable. Lamar took the opportunity, in front of the largest audience he’ll ever have, to absolutely ether his enemy Drake. The glee with which Lamar directed his fury at his opponent was remarkable.
The halftime show wasn’t just about Lamar taking shots at Drake, but this isn’t a cultural criticism column. I don’t have the bandwidth here to get into the other points and issues he raised. Still, his show was a true spectacle all around. It’s something I’ll be revisiting from time to time for many years.
Meanwhile, Lamar is going on tour with SZA this summer, and the itinerary includes a couple of stops in Toronto. That gives Drake a few months to pack his stuff and, like, move to Mars before his biggest hater takes over his hometown.
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 Thursday, February 13, 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…
- GUILT
- MIGHT
- MOLD
- EGO
- POWER
- EXPRESSION
- TOKEN
- MUST
- HEAD
- WILL
- GUIDE
- GESTURE
- CAN
- MODEL
- SYMBOL
- BLUEPRINT
And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:
- Yellow group — this is how it’s done
- Green group — ways to show you care
- Blue group — it’s gonna happen (maybe)
- Purple group — “road” would fit in 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 — template
- Green group — demonstration, as of appreciation
- Blue group — modal verbs
- Purple group — _____ trip
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 — template (BLUEPRINT, GUIDE, MODEL, MOLD)
- Green group — demonstration, as of appreciation (EXPRESSION, GESTURE, SYMBOL, TOKEN)
- Blue group — modal verbs (CAN, MIGHT, MUST, WILL)
- Purple group — _____ trip (EGO, GUILT, HEAD, POWER)
A second straight perfect game takes my overall streak up to seven wins. Here’s how I fared:
I didn’t have much trouble at all with this one. The blues jumped out at me right away but I figured those would be the greens. No matter, I’ll take it!
The yellows were easy enough thanks to BLUEPRINT and MODEL. Those were up next. Things were still pretty straightforward from there. The greens seemed clear enough to me. That left the purples, for which I did figure out the connection.
Sure, it’s nice to have relative easy games to help keep those streaks rolling along. But difficult grids are both more fun and more frustrating. Those are a win-win (except for those who really want to maintain their streaks!).
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 don’t have a particular reason for recommending “Video Killed The Radio Star” by The Buggles today. It’s just been stuck in my head for a while. It’s a true classic and, famously, the music video was the first one that was ever shown on MTV in the U.S.:
The Presidents of the United States of America’s cover is pretty swell too:
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.
