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, folks! I hope your weekend is off to a great start.
It’s deep winter for many of us in the northern hemisphere. Around these parts, we got a third of the expected snowfall for an entire winter in two storms over four days. The last of those was Sunday, and the snow clearing process is still ongoing. So yeah, I haven’t been outside all week. Thank goodness for my rowing machine and under-desk pedaling thing.
If you’re also dealing with inclement weather where you are, I hope you’re going outside as little as possible at the moment too. Unless, of course, you enjoy outdoor winter activities. In which case, great! Have fun out there!
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 22, 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…
- YANKEE
- DOODLE
- GLITTER
- GOOSE
- PAPER
- FEATHER
- MACARONI
- ROD
- PARACHUTE
- PACKER
- CANADIEN
- CURL
- CELTIC
- TEASE
- GLUE
- CRIMP
And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:
- Yellow group — pro athlete
- Green group — some zhush at the salon
- Blue group — supplies for creative time at a pre-school, perhaps
- Purple group — “fleece” and “hour” 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 — member of a team with the most championships in their respective sports
- Green group — create some volume/texture in hair
- Blue group — supplies for macaroni art
- Purple group — words after “golden”
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 — member of a team with the most championships in their respective sports (CANADIEN, CELTIC, PACKER, YANKEE)
- Green group — create some volume/texture in hair (CRIMP, CURL, FEATHER, TEASE)
- Blue group — supplies for macaroni art (GLITTER, GLUE, MACARONI, PAPER)
- Purple group — words after “golden” (DOODLE, GOOSE, PARACHUTE, ROD)
No perfect game today. However, my overall winning streak now stands at 16 wins in a row. Here’s how I fared:
The yellows were no problem at all. The spelling of CANADIEN was a dead giveaway (I would be shamed out of Montreal if I didn’t get that), so I just looked for other team names minus the “S.” The greens were easy enough too.
After that, I wasn’t totally sure where to go. I tried a guess of DOODLE, GLITTER, MACARONI and GLUE as in ways to make art as, perhaps, a preschooler. But those put me one away from a group. Swapping out DOODLE for PAPER was the way to go.
I didn’t get the purple connection before submitting the group. I was not familiar with a goldendoodle or a golden ROD, but GOOSE and PARACHUTE might have been enough for me to get this on another day when my brain was firing on all cylinders.
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 had a different recommendation (and accompanying intro) in mind, but given today’s blue group, I’m inspired to go in a different direction. In “The Calculation,” Regina Spektor sings about how “we made our own computer out of macaroni pieces.” Relevant!
Spektor is one of my favorite artists. She’s the writer and performer behind one of my top 10 songs of all time, which I may share on another occasion. But this time, I’m going with the cute song that made me think of her today:
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.
