NYT 'Connections' Hints And Answers For Tuesday, December 17

4 days ago

Forbes

Find the links between the words to win today's game of Connections.

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Looking for Monday’s Connections hints and answers instead? You can find them here:

ForbesNYT ‘Connections’ Hints And Answers For Monday, December 16By Kris Holt

Hey there! I hope your week’s off to a great start.

This is my last full day of work for the year and I have to admit, I’m more than ready for some downtime. Don’t worry, I’ll still be bringing you this column every day. I’ll be working on a few other bits and pieces I’ve been meaning to cross off my to-do list as well. But other than that, I’m looking forward to relaxing with loved ones.

Before we get started, I’ve started 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 curious 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 Tuesday, December 17, 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...

TISSUE CARPET WAX PLUCK DRAG NERVE CLAY GRAPH GRASS ARTERY HARD HEART DRIVE GRIT CONSTRUCTION AVENUE

And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:

Yellow group — guts or determination Green group — what Doc Brown says he and the gang won't need in the final scene of Back to the Future Blue group — varieties of useful material that's made from trees Purple group — Arthur Ashe, Center, Philippe Chatrier and Rod Laver surfaces 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 — intrepidity Green group — road Blue group — kinds of paper Purple group — kinds of tennis courts 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 — intrepidity (GRIT, HEART, NERVE, PLUCK) Green group — road (ARTERY, AVENUE, DRAG, DRIVE) Blue group — kinds of paper (CONSTRUCTION, GRAPH, TISSUE, WAX) Purple group — kinds of tennis courts (CARPET, CLAY, GRASS, HARD)

A perfect game brings me up to four wins in a row! Here's how I fared:

????????????????

I grooved through this grid like it was no-one's business. Zero problems here and I must have finished it in under 30 seconds.

NERVE and PLUCK opened up the greens for me, while CARPET and GRASS did the same for the purples. CONSTRUCTION and GRAPH then made the blues clear, leaving the yellows for the win.

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 Wednesday’s game if you need them.

P.S. Tempted as I am to recommend Back to the Future — a perfect but slightly messed-up movie — I've got a game for you today. You can play this one on iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch. It used to be a paid app, but now it's free and ad-supported.

Galaxy Mix is a spin on Suika Game, which took the Nintendo Switch — and my downtime — by storm last year. Here, you drop different celestial bodies (stars, planets etc) into a container. When two matching items touch, they combine into a bigger one. The aim is to create a black hole, but apparently only 0.1% percent of players have done this.

There are couple of twists on the genre here: you can drop a bomb to get rid of planets that are in the way and shuffle the board by shaking the screen.

This is a game I've gone back to time and time again this year. I really appreciate the precision of using my watch dial to position items before dropping them, but I find it fun to play on my phone too. It's a safe bet Galaxy Mix will end up on my list of my favorite games of 2024:

Have a great day! Call someone you love!

If you’re so inclined, please do follow my blog for more coverage of Connections and other word games and even some video game news, insights and analysis. It helps me out a lot! Also, follow me on Bluesky! It’s fun there.