Happy birthday, Connections! It's game 366 today, and given that it's a leap year that means it's the 12-month anniversary of Connections starting. And the NYT has celebrated by giving us a really difficult one; you definitely might want some hints to help you out.
What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Wordle hints and answers, Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.
Marc is TechRadar’s Global Editor in Chief and has been obsessed with Wordle and its ilk for more than two years. He's authored dozens of articles on the game for TechRadar, including a daily today's Wordle answer column and a detailed analysis of the most common letters in Wordle in every position. He's also played every Wordle ever and only lost once and yes, he takes it all too seriously.
NYT Connections today (game #366) - today's words
Today's NYT Connections words are…
- HI
- BYE
- TRI
- BI
- TRAP
- AB
- POP
- OFF
- DUB
- MED
- BUY
- QUAD
- LO
- EMO
- PEC
- BY
NYT Connections today (game #366) - hint #1 - group hints
What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?
- Yellow: Sounds familiar
- Green: Total flex
- Blue: What you listening to?
- Purple: Dial it up
Need more clues?
We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…
NYT Connections today (game #366) - hint #2 - group answers
What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: HOMOPHONES
- GREEN: MUSCLES, INFORMALLY
- BLUE: MUSIC GENRES
- PURPLE: SETTINGS ON AN APPLIANCE KNOB
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Connections today (game #366) - the answers
The answers to today's Connections, game #366, are…
- YELLOW: HOMOPHONES BI, BUY, BY, BYE
- GREEN: MUSCLES, INFORMALLY AB, PEC, QUAD, TRI
- BLUE: MUSIC GENRES DUB, EMO, POP, TRAP
- PURPLE: SETTINGS ON AN APPLIANCE KNOB HI, LO, MED, OFF
- My rating: Hard
- My score: Two mistakes
Well this was a tough one! In fact, it's arguably the most difficult Connections puzzle I've played in weeks. I solved it in the end, with two mistakes, but it took me about an hour to find all of the answers, split over several shorter sessions which mostly consisted of me staring at the board in bemusement.
The problem is obvious immediately. Five of the words have only two letters, nine have three and two have four. And almost all of them could be prefixes. If you're anything like me, you will have got hung up on that for ages, thinking of various words that could follow the various answers. Could BI and TRI go with CYCLE? And what would the other two be? Are some of them parts of words – for instance LO and EMO could be followed by TION to make LOTION and EMOTION. But again, there are only two of them.
It was only when I looked for a different kind of connection that I made progress. BI, BUY, BY and BYE obviously all sound exactly the same. Obviously! How did I miss that? And then I realized that DUB, POP, EMO and TRAP are all music styles and solved blue next. I was getting there. And then I stalled again.
With only two sets to find, I could see that muscles was a probable group – but I only knew three: QUAD, PEC and AB. I tried MED, then HI, failed twice, then went with TRI and got it. That gave me purple too and I solved this difficult Connections puzzle with two errors.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Monday, 10 June, game #365)
- YELLOW: CORE CRUX, ESSENCE, HEART, SUBSTANCE
- GREEN: COMPLICATED BAROQUE, COMPLEX, ELABORATE, INVOLVED
- BLUE: SYMBOLS USED IN MAKING LISTS ARROW, BULLET, CHECKBOX, HYPHEN
- PURPLE: WHAT “CROSS” MIGHT MEAN ANGRY, BETRAY, CRUCIFIX, HYBRID
What is NYT Connections?
NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.
On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.
It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.
It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
