NYT Connections Today – My Hints and Answers for Sunday, January 12 (Game #581)
Good morning! Let’s play Connections, the NYT’s clever word game that challenges you to group answers into different categories. It can be tricky, so read on if you need pointers.
What should you do when you’re done? Of course, play some word games. I also have daily Strands Hints and Answers and Quordle Hints and Answers articles if you need help with those too, while Marc’s Wordle Today page covers the original viral word game.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about today’s NYT Connections is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.
NYT Connections Today (Game #581) – Today’s Words
Today’s words from NYT Connections are…
- COMETS
- INVENTION
- COIN TOS
- DEFENDER
- COURT
- ASTEROIDS
- FAIRY TALE
- DRESS JACKET
- FICTION
- ROMANCE
- SONIC THE HEDGEHOG
- CENTIPADE
- CHARM
- FANTASY
- OUTBREAK
- PURSUIT
NYT Connections Today (Game #581) – Hint #1 – Group Hints
What are some pointers for today’s NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: All made up
- VEGETABLES: Dating
- BLUE: Video classics
- PURPLE: Reverse
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 puzzles…
NYT Connections Today (Game #581) – Hint #2 – Group Answers
What are the answers for today’s NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: MANUFACTURING
- GREEN: WOO
- BLUE: CLASSIC ATARI GAMES
- PURPLE: THINGS WITH TAILS
Okay, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Connections Today (Game #581) – The Answers
The answers to today’s Connections game, game #581, are…
- YELLOW: MANUFACTURING FAIRY TALE, FANTASY, FICTION, INVENTION
- GREEN: WOO CHARM, COURT, PURSUIT, ROMANCE
- BLUE: CLASSIC ATARI GAMES ASTEROIDS, OUTBREAK, Centipede, DEFENDER
- PURPLE: THINGS WITH TAILS COIN TOSS, COMETS, JAS, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG
- My rating: Difficult
- My score: Failure
I started today’s Connections completely baffled and couldn’t see any links at all before I wrote down every word and – after a brief thought that we were looking for book genres – noticed the words that made up FABRICATION and WOO.
Blue and Purple defeated me. Games are a blind spot for me. When I enjoy a game, I get stuck with it for years – Tetris, Simtown, Balatro – don’t play anything else at all until a new game takes over, or as was the case with a dinner party game called Reply I was playing on my phone every day, accidentally deleted it, only to find out it’s no longer available. I realize this is a bit strange and leaves me completely ignorant of everything else. But even if I were aware of the video game canon of the late 20th century, I would certainly have included SONIC THE HEDGEHOG as an Atari game (it’s Sega), rather than the THINGS WITH TAILS category.
After Googling “does Sonic The Hedgehog have a tail?” (I’m not the first to do this) I eventually discovered that Tails is the name of a character within the Sonic the hedgehog universe – and yes, Sonic has a tail. Every day is a school day.
Yesterday’s NYT Connections answers (Saturday, January 11, game #580)
- YELLOW: DISPLAY OF ROWS AND COLUMNS ARRAY, GRID, MATRIX, TABLE
- GREEN: THINGS TO DO DURING A WORK EVENT CIRCULATE, CONVERSE, MINGLE, NETWORK
- BLUE: OLYMPIC EVENTS SINCE 2000 BREAKING, SURFING, TAEKWONDO, TRAMPOLINE
- PURPLE: -_COURT FOOD, KANGAROO, SUPREME, TENNIS
What is NYT Connections?
NYT Connections is one of the New York Times’ increasingly popular word games. It challenges you to find groups of four items that have something in common, and each group has a different level of difficulty: green is easy, yellow is slightly harder, blue is often quite hard, and purple is usually very hard.
On the plus side, you technically don’t have to solve the last question because you can answer it by a process of elimination. Plus, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you some breathing room.
It’s a bit more complicated than something like Wordle, though, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For example, beware of homophones and other word games that can obscure the answers.
It is playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.