Want a different day?
A new NYT Connections puzzle appears every day at midnight for your time zone – which means some people are still playing “today’s game” while others are playing “yesterday’s.” If you are looking for the Sunday puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections Tips and Answers for Sunday, October 19 (Thu #861).
Good morning! Let’s play Connections, the clever word game from the New York Times that challenges you to group answers into different categories. This can be difficult, so read on if you need tips on connections.
What should you do once you’re done? Well, play other word games of course. I also have daily Strands tips and answers and articles on Quordle tips and answers if you need help with those too, while Marc’s Wordle page today covers the original viral word game.
SPOILER WARNING: The information on NYT Connections today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.
NYT Connections today (game #862) – words of the day
Today’s NYT Connections words are…
- K
- POPULAR
- DEMON
- HUNTER
- COMPLEX
- AS
- CENTAUR
- BE
- BIG BEAR
- SCARECROW
- UNITED
- TO HANG UP
- LYRE
- CORSAIR
NYT Connections today (game #862) – clue #1 – group clues
What are the clues for today’s NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: Disturbed by something
- GREEN: In the stars
- BLUE: Chemical elements
- PURPLE: Add a word that rhymes with “torn”
Need more clues?
We’re firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four themed answers are for today’s NYT Connections riddles…
NYT Connections today (game #862) – clue #2 – group answers
What are the answers for today’s NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: AFFLICTION
- GREEN: REPRESENTED BY CONSTELLATIONS
- BLUE: SYMBOLS OF THE PERIODIC TABLE
- PURPLE: ____CORN
That’s right, the answers are below, so DON’T SCROLL FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Connections today (game #862) – the answers
The answers to today’s Connections game #862 are…
- YELLOW: AFFLICTION BUGBEAR, COMPLEX, DEMON, HANG UP
- GREEN: REPRESENTED BY CONSTELLATIONS BIG BEAR, CENTAUR, HUNTER, LYRE
- BLUE: SYMBOLS OF THE PERIODIC TABLE LIKE, BE, I, K
- PURPLE: ____CORN A, CAPRI, POP, UNI
- My rating: Hard
- My rating: 1 error
It was extraordinarily tempting to connect K, POP, DEMON and HUNTER (Connections has done groups like this before where you think it’s too obvious) but I stopped before I started.
I surprised myself by getting all four tiles that made up AFFLICTION, but immediately thought: if this is the yellow/easiest group, then what chance do I have of passing this round?
Seeing no connection between the remaining 12 tiles and the short words, I shuffled the tiles until something made sense. Because they all seemed vaguely mythical, I put CENTAUR, CAPRI, LYRE and HUNTER together – which gave me an error, but also a “one away”.
Not really knowing what I was doing, I removed CAPRI and replaced it with BIG BEAR. Then, in the recesses of my memory, I remembered that K (potassium) and AS (arsenic) were both symbols on the periodic table and guessed that me and BE were too.
And so, I worked my way through this game and then kicked myself after the purple reveal. Congratulations if all of this was obvious to you.
Answers from yesterday’s NYT Connections (Sunday October 19, match #861)
- YELLOW: REVERSE FALL, SPILL, TUMBLE, ERASE
- GREEN: PARTS OF A BOOCOVER K, JACKET, SHEETS, BACK
- BLUE: LOSE IT, WITH “OUT” BUG, FLIP, FREAK, WIG
- PURPLE: CHOCOLATE BARS PLUS ONE LETTER CRUNCHY, DOVER, MARSH, SKIRT-SKIRT
What is NYT Connections?
NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games created by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four elements that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow is a little more difficult, blue is often quite difficult, and purple is usually very difficult.
On the plus side, you technically don’t need to solve the final question, as you will be able to answer it through a process of elimination. Additionally, you can make up to four mistakes, giving you some breathing room.
However, it’s a bit more complex than something like Wordle, and the game provides plenty of opportunities to trip you up with tricks. For example, watch out for homophones and other puns that could obscure the answers.
It is playable for free via the NYT Games website on computer or mobile.
