NYT Connections hints and answers for Saturday, December 13 (game #916)

NYT Connections homescreen on a phone, on a purple background
(Image credit: New York Times)
Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Friday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Friday, December 12 (game #915).

Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Connections today (game #916) - today's words

NYT Connections hints for game 916 on a purple background

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

  • HERCULE
  • POIROT
  • AJA
  • GAUCHO
  • PALAZZO
  • PIAZZA
  • ARE
  • APOSTLE
  • STRAWBERRY
  • DEPOT
  • CULOTTE
  • GOODEN
  • HER
  • SEAVER
  • MORTGAGE
  • HAREM

NYT Connections today (game #916) - hint #1 - group hints

What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?

  • YELLOW: Big trousers
  • GREEN: A sound is missing
  • BLUE: Local MLB stars  
  • PURPLE: A letter is missing

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 #916) - hint #2 - group answers

What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?

  • YELLOW: WIDE-LEGGED PANT STYLES
  • GREEN: SILENT "T"
  • BLUE: NEW YORK METS LEGENDS 
  • PURPLE: GREEK MYTHOLOGICAL FIGURES MINUS A LETTER

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Connections today (game #916) - the answers

NYT Connections answers for game 916 on a purple background

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #916, are…

  • YELLOW: WIDE-LEGGED PANT STYLES CULOTTE, GAUCHO, HAREM, PALAZZO
  • GREEN: SILENT "T" APOSTLE, DEPOT, MORTGAGE, POIROT
  • BLUE: NEW YORK METS LEGENDS GOODEN, PIAZZA, SEAVER, STRAWBERRY
  • PURPLE: GREEK MYTHOLOGICAL FIGURES MINUS A LETTER AJA, ARE, HER, HERCULE

  • My rating: Hard
  • My score: 1 mistake

My game today was a Connections miracle and the result of sheer guesswork and random luck rather than any knowledge, which is why I’m classifying it as hard. 

Clueless about any groups and resisting the temptation to join HERCULE and POIROT I linked CULOTTE, PIAZZA, GAUCHO and PALAZZO because I thought they might all be words for meeting place or town square. But when i got one away I saw the link and swapped out PIAZZA for HAREM; that said, PIZZA pants sounds like it should be a thing too.

I arrived at SILENT “T” by sounding out the remaining 12 tiles, but the GREEK MYTHOLOGICAL FIGURES MINUS A LETTER was only solved because of the similarity of AJA, ARE, and HER. I only added HERCULE because it began with the same letters as another one of the tiles. They all count!


Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Friday, December 12, game #915)

  • YELLOW: CONTAIN HOLD, HOUSE, KEEP, STORE
  • GREEN: MOVE IN THE WIND BLOW, FLAP, SWAY, WAVE
  • BLUE: VEGETABLE UNITS BULB, EAR, HEAD, SPEAR
  • PURPLE: THINGS THAT ARE DIVIDED INTO TWELVE SEGMENTS CLOCK, FOOT, YEAR, ZODIAC

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.

Contributor

Johnny is a freelance pop culture journalist who has been writing about the internet, music, football and famous people since the iPhone was just a twinkle in Steve Jobs' eye. Previously known by the pseudonym the Pop Detective, his journalistic career began making up stories about Madonna's addiction to sausage rolls (this is not true by the way). A man of few talents, his career is rich and various and includes the highs of interviewing Elton John and Blur; and the lows of interviewing Right Said Fred, appearing on a Channel 5 documentary about Peter Kay, and fact-checking the instruction manual for a German cooker. Somehow still affording to live in North London he is at his happiest riding his bicycle and shouting at pigeons.

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