Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights.
Each day's game of NYT Connections goes live at midnight local time. Before your NYT Connections hints today, here's what you missed on Wednesday:
Hey there, Connectors! Whatever you're up to today, I hope you're enjoying it with those who mean the most to you.
Today means many things to a lot of people, including NFL action on a Thursday afternoon and an excuse to enjoy a hearty meal with loved ones (not that you should ever need a particular reason for that). It also might mean that you're ready to splurge on Black Friday deals, even though those all started weeks ago.
There's another occasion to celebrate today. We've reached the landmark 900th edition of Connections, the puzzle game that has captivated many of us every day for nearly two and a half years. I'm thankful that it exists, that I get to write about it every day and that it helped bring together a wonderful community over on Discord,
Over there, we chat about Connections, the rest of the NYT games and all kinds of other stuff. It's a lovely, welcoming group (I'm there too, I guess!). I like to call it our cozy little corner of the internet. You're more than welcome to join us. Don't be shy!
Connections presents you with a grid of 16 words (sometimes phrases, symbols or numbers). The aim is to arrange them into four groups of four. You don't know how they hit together or what the category for each group is: that's what you have to figure out.
There's only one correct solution and there are often red herrings. You can guess incorrectly three times. A fourth wrong guess, and it's game over.
Each group is color coded. The yellow group is usually the easiest to deduce, followed by blue, green and purple. Often, the yellow and green groups have synonyms, the blues have cultural references and the purples have some kind of wordplay involved. But this is not a hard and fast rule. Be ready for curveballs - part of the fun of Connections is in how the NYT shakes things up to keep you on your toes.
As with Wordle and similar games, it's easy to share results with your friends using an emoji-based grid. The game tracks your progress too.
Many players take pride in having long win streaks or getting a reverse rainbow - correctly guessing the purple, blue, green and yellow groups in that order with no mistakes. That adds an extra little challenge.
Scroll slowly! I'll first give you a list of today's words, then a hint for each category. After that, I'll reveal one word that goes into each group. Then I'll tell you the category names, followed by the full answers.
Not quite the off-the-wall game I was expecting/hoping for today, but still a bit of a chin scratcher. Off the bat, I thought that TORRENT (as in file sharing via the BitTorrent protocol) and DOWNLOADS might go together. There were quite a few other computer- and internet-related words, including FILES, ROUTERS, DOCUMENTS and DESKTOP.
Nevertheless, I clocked that TORRENT should go with what turned out to be the yellows. SWELLING SEA didn't quite fit with that or TIDAL WAVE, at least in my mind, so that turned out to be a red herring.
I then realized that FILES didn't quite make sense with DESKTOP, DOWNLOADS and DOCUMENTS (but "program files" would have) since those were all key Windows computer folders. MUSIC, however, did square with those to give me the greens.
That meant ROUTERS had to go with the rest of the DIY tools for the blue. I didn't clock the purple connection at all, but there we had our fun little Easter egg to celebrate the 900th edition of Connections. I might have figured it out if I'd used my usual trick of saying all the words/phrases out loud.
I was wondering where the little trick was for our landmark edition of this game and it popped up right at the end. I enjoyed that. Roll on March 7, when we reach our one thousandth edition of this lovely, often infuriating game.
A regular rainbow extends my winning streak to 271. How did you get on today? Here's my grid:
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟪🟪🟪🟪
Want to know more about how everything fits together? Let's explore today's game in more depth in my NYT Connections Answers Explained column. You can check that out by visiting my author page.
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 Friday's game if you need them.
P.S. 900 makes me think of the famous skateboarding trick (a 2.5-revolution spin in the air). Tony Hawk was the first person on record to successfully execute the move after several attempts at the X Games in 1999:
So that led me to think about Tony Hawk Pro Skater, and then to choose a song from that video game series' iconic soundtrack. Since I've been gambling a little bit recently (I'd advise anyone reading not to do that!), it seems apt to go with this all-time rock and roll classic, "Ace of Spades" by Motörhead:
Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Be kind to yourself and each other! Call someone you love!