Find the links between the words to win today’s game of Connections.
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Looking for Saturday’s Connections hints and answers instead? You can find them here:
Hey, everyone! I hope you’re enjoying your weekend.
I’ve always been someone who tries to find the positives in everything. To look on the bright side. There are times when that’s very difficult, of course. Still, there’s often a diamond in the rough or a needle in the haystack if you know where to look or you search hard enough.
I’ll save the particulars for today’s end-of-column recommendation but I’ve been thinking a lot lately about one song I really love from a band whose work otherwise hasn’t landed for me at all. Not to say that I dislike them, just that their music isn’t for me, based on my experience. But it’s cool that I’ve been able to engage with at least one aspect of their art.
My point is that we should try to err on the side of being open-minded. Even if someone makes a bad first impression and leaves a bitter taste in your mouth for a long time, you might finally learn something about them that you can connect with, appreciate and/or celebrate.
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 Sunday, February 23, 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…
- PICKLE
- GRATE
- MILK
- TEA
- JAM
- SCRAPE
- CAN
- BUTTER
- GRIND
- BEANS
- SYRUP
- FERMENT
- FREEZE
- GUTS
- HOT SAUCE
- GNASH
And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:
- Yellow group — be abrasive
- Green group — save some for (way) later
- Blue group — liven up your body’s fuel
- Purple group — tell all or don’t get upset (for short)
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 — rub together
- Green group — ways to preserve food
- Blue group — breakfast condiments
- Purple group — proverbial things that are spilled
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 — rub together (GNASH, GRATE, GRIND, SCRAPE)
- Green group — ways to preserve food (CAN, FERMENT, FREEZE, PICKLE)
- Blue group — breakfast condiments (BUTTER, HOT SAUCE, JAM, SYRUP)
- Purple group — proverbial things that are spilled (BEANS, GUTS, MILK, TEA)
I missed out on getting a perfect game today. Still, my overall streak is up to 17 wins. Here’s how I fared:
My initial instinct was that PICKLE, JAM and SCRAPE would form part of a group (as in a troublesome situation), but nothing really made sense with them. PICKLE had three other partners that made sense for the greens.
Still, I couldn’t shake my initial thought. So I paired JAM and SCRAPE with GRIND and GUTS for my second guess. Nothing doing there. Not quite sure what my thought process was with that one in hindsight.
TEA, SYRUP, BUTTER and MILK was my next attempt in the sense that they’re all breakfast-related, but no dice on that one either. I was close, though, as I realized what the blues were immediately after that.
It was fairly plain sailing from there. I lumped the four remaining verbs together (not counting MILK) to get the yellows. I really should have figured out the purple connection! In hindsight, it wasn’t a difficult group at all. Heck, I use the phrase “spill the beans” all the time. I’m annoyed I didn’t get that.
To spill the BEANS or TEA, or to spill your GUTS generally all mean that you share secrets. MILK refers to the expression “no use crying over spilled milk,” meaning that there’s no point getting upset about something that has already happened and can’t be changed.
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 Monday’s game if you need them.
P.S. Continuing on from the intro, the song that I particularly have in mind is “Part of the Band” by The 1975. I liked this from the first time I heard it. The intricate, lush instrumentation, intriguing structure and even the somewhat pretentious lyrics all grabbed me and I haven’t been really able to shake the song for a couple of years.
But no other song I’ve heard by The 1975 has really worked for me at all. I can’t quite put my finger on why that is. But no matter, because this one particular is pretty swell:
Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Call someone you love!
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