NYT Connections today — hints and answers for Friday, September 27 (game #474)

NYT Connections homescreen on a phone, on a purple background
(Image credit: New York Times)

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 clues.

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.

Your Connections expert
Marc McLaren
Your Connections expert
Marc McLaren

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 #474) - today's words

NYT Connections hints for game 474 on a purple background

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

  • IMPORT
  • THING
  • GRAVITY
  • START
  • BANK
  • TRADE
  • MATRIX
  • DUNE
  • WEIGHT
  • ABYSS
  • DRAFT
  • MOUND
  • HILL
  • BENCH
  • FLY
  • SUBSTANCE

NYT Connections today (game #474) - hint #1 - group hints

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

  • Yellow: Up there on that __
  • Green: Big deal
  • Blue: Team of the week
  • Purple: Star Wars would not be one. The Return of the Jedi would

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 #474) - hint #2 - group answers

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

  • YELLOW: AREA OF HIGH GROUND
  • GREEN: SIGNIFICANCE
  • BLUE: ACTIONS IN FANTASY SPORTS
  • PURPLE: SCI-FI MOVIES, WITH “THE”

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

NYT Connections today (game #474) - the answers

NYT Connections answers for game 474 on a purple background

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #474, are…

  • YELLOW: AREA OF HIGH GROUND BANK, DUNE, HILL, MOUND
  • GREEN: SIGNIFICANCE GRAVITY, IMPORT, SUBSTANCE, WEIGHT
  • BLUE: ACTIONS IN FANTASY SPORTS BENCH, DRAFT, START, TRADE
  • PURPLE: SCI-FI MOVIES, WITH “THE” ABYSS, FLY, MATRIX, THING

  • My rating: Moderate
  • My score: 3 mistakes

What do MATRIX, THING, FLY, ABYSS, GRAVITY and DUNE all have in common? They're all movies, of course – and more specifically all sci-fi movies (although The Fly is also a horror). Four of them also formed a Connections group today – but which four?

If I'd been a little more careful I'd have worked it out sooner and not lost a guess very early on. But I didn't do that, instead just picking four at random, which was a REALLY STUPID thing to do. Still, I got it on the second attempt, taking a little more time over it and realizing that it was SCI-FI MOVIES, WITH “THE”, and therefore ABYSS, FLY, MATRIX and THING.

I only lost one guess there, but threw away a couple more on the blue ACTIONS IN FANTASY SPORTS group. I originally had IMPORT in there, thinking it was something about taking things/people from one place to another (which worked with DRAFT and TRADE), but was looking in slightly the wrong place and almost suffered a failure. With no guesses remaining I swapped IMPORT for BENCH, added START and solved this Connections puzzle.

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.


Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Thursday, 26 September, game #473)

  • YELLOW: DECORATIVE EDGE BORDER, FRILL, FRINGE, TRIM
  • GREEN: INCREASE, IN A WAY GROW, MOUNT, SWELL, WAX
  • BLUE: SPECIFICATIONS FOR A BARTENDER DRY, NEAT, STRAIGHT, VIRGIN
  • PURPLE: STRING ___ BEAN, BIKINI, CHEESE, THEORY

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.

Marc McLaren
Global Editor in Chief

Marc is TechRadar’s Global Editor in Chief, the latest in a long line of senior editorial roles he’s held in a career that started the week that Google launched (nice of them to mark the occasion). Prior to joining TR, he was UK Editor in Chief on Tom’s Guide, where he oversaw all gaming, streaming, audio, TV, entertainment, how-to and cameras coverage. He's also a former editor of the tech website Stuff and spent five years at the music magazine NME, where his duties mainly involved spoiling other people’s fun. He’s based in London, and has tested and written about phones, tablets, wearables, streaming boxes, smart home devices, Bluetooth speakers, headphones, games, TVs, cameras and pretty much every other type of gadget you can think of. An avid photographer, Marc likes nothing better than taking pictures of very small things (bugs, his daughters) or very big things (distant galaxies). He also enjoys live music, gaming, cycling, and beating Wordle (he authors the daily Wordle today page).

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