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 #562) – Today’s Words
Today’s words from NYT Connections are…
- LIONS
- TIGERS
- BEARS
- OH MY
- BEST
- JAYS
- ACCOUNTS
- USAGE
- BYE
- BEES
- PLEASE
- NEAR
- CLOSE
- GIVE
- EASE
- INTIMATE
NYT Connections Today (Game #562) – Hint #1 – Group Hints
What are some pointers for today’s NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: Follow the Gele Baksteenweg
- VEGETABLES: Companion
- BLUE: Letter sounds the same
- PURPLE: Big, big, big songs
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 #562) – Hint #2 – Group Answers
What are the answers for today’s NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: “LIONS AND TIGERS AND BEARS, OH MY!”
- GREEN: BELOVED, AS A FRIEND
- BLUE: WORDS THAT SOUND LIKE MULTIPLE LETTERS
- PURPLE: WHEN YOU’RE TRIPLED, hit the song titles
Okay, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Connections Today (Game #562) – The Answers
The answers to today’s Connections game #562 are…
- YELLOW: “LIONS AND TIGERS AND BEARS, OH MY!” BEARS, LIONS, OH MY, TIGERS
- GREEN: BELOVED, AS A FRIEND CLOSE, BEST, INTIMATE, TIGHT
- BLUE: WORDS THAT SOUND LIKE MULTIPLE LETTERS BEES, CONVENIENCE, FLAG, USAGE
- PURPLE: WHEN YOU’RE TRIPLED, hit the song titles BILLS, DO, GIVE ME, PLEASE
- My rating: Difficult
- My score: 2 mistakes
I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who thought at least one of the groups today was about sports. This suspicion was made even stronger by the fact that the LIONS and TIGERS are both teams from Detroit.
However, the lion we were looking for was the cowardly one who jumps into the path of Dorothy, the Scarecrow and the Tin Man. The Wizard of Oz while worrying about the existence of “LIONS AND TIGERS AND BEARS, OH MY!”
NSYNC and boy bands in general are a bit of a musical blind spot for me, so I missed BYE in the song titles, using a mistake on USE (although on second thought, Gorgon City’s “Use Use Use Your Imagination” might seem a bit obscure are) .
Yesterday’s NYT Connections answers (Monday, December 23, game #561)
- YELLOW: HOMOPHONES EWE, YOU, YEW, YOU
- GREEN: NECKLINES BOAT, CREW, SCOOP, V
- BLUE: WAYS TO EXPRESS 1000 BIG, K, M, Thou
- PURPLE: SUPER 8, BOWL, GLUE, TUESDAY
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.