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Tom’s Guide
Tom’s Guide
Technology
Alexis James

Today's NYT Connections hints and answers — Monday, February 5, #239

NYT Connections.
Connections today: Quick menu

Looking for today's Connections answers? The Connections answers on February 5 for puzzle #239 begin the week at a medium level, with the Connections Companion rating this puzzle's difficulty at 3.0 out of 5.

Every day, we update this article with Connections hints and tips to help you find all 4 of today's answers. And if the hints aren't enough, you'll find all 4 answers below, with the category titles and the correlating words. Plus, we're including a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #238, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.

Spoilers lie ahead for Connections #239. Only read on if you want to know today's Connections answers.  

Alternatively, visit our how to play NYT Connections guide for tips on how to solve the puzzle without our help.

Today's Connections answer — hints to help you solve it

Unlike our guide to today's Wordle answer, where we recommend the best Wordle start words as your strategy, solving Connections relies on identifying connecting categories among 16 words. Each category's difficulty level is represented by a color; yellow is the easiest grouping, and purple is the most challenging. Once you've made 4 mistakes in your guesses, the answers will be revealed, so hints can be helpful.

If you need hints to solve the groupings, then here are the themes of each, based on the order of difficulty:

  • 🟨 Yellow: Cut some slack
  • 🟩 Green: Divine
  • 🟦 Blue: Musical immortals
  • 🟪 Purple: City slicker

These hints should get you at least some of the way towards finding today's Connections answers. If not, then you can read on for bigger clues; or, if you just want to know the answer, then scroll down further.

Alright then, here's a larger hint: Today's puzzle is brimming with titles, but don't be overwhelmed, look to the heavens for inspiration. Then celebrate by playing some of the finest rock music ever heard.

Today's Connections answers

So, what are today's Connections answers for game #239?

Drumroll, please...

  • 🟨 "Give me a break!": Brother, Lord, Please, Sheesh
  • 🟩 Ecclesiastical titles: Bishop, Cardinal, Pastor, Prior
  • 🟦 Rock & Roll hall of fame inductees: Heart, Madonna, Prince, Queen
  • 🟪 City homophones: Deli, Niece, Roam, Soul

As a fan of online chess, I was immediately drawn to Bishop and Queen, but with no rook, pawn, or knight to be found I soon realised I'd played the wrong opening. 

Opting to go down a different route, I combined Bishop, Cardinal, Pastor, and Lord for my first effort of the day, leaning towards some sort of medieval title theme. One away, I replaced Lord with Prince, only to find I'd lost yet another early life. 

With seemingly dozens of titles in today's grid, it was clear that I was going to have to narrow my focus, and whether it was divine inspiration or otherwise, I swapped Lord for Prior. To my relief, the green category was complete: Ecclesiastical Titles.

I'd got the break I needed, and, on that topic, I soon found a new home for Lord, alongside Brother, Please and Sheesh! for a completed yellow category. 

Of those remaining, I thought Queen and Prince must surely be together, though I realised neither had anything to do with the monarchy when I spotted Madonna. We're talking music here, of course, and rock band Heart completed the Rock & Roll legends.

Deli, Niece, Roam, and Soul remained for our purple category. As any regular Connections player will know, if no immediate theme comes to mind, consider the sound of the word and not just the way it's spelled. Sure enough, it became apparent that we were jet-setting from India to France, to Italy and then South Korea: city homophones.

Yesterday's Connections answers

Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Connections answers for game #238, which had a difficulty rating of 3.8 out of 5, according to the Connections Companion.

Given the early hours of the day that I find myself writing this, it should come as no surprise that I took little time to complete today's yellow category: drinks with caffeine.

Barely able to say my name before the day's first coffee kicks in, I soon combined my staple hot drink with winter faves Cocoa and Tea, and the South American drink that seems to be a hit among the world's leading soccer players, Mate.

Dull, Boring, and Mundane are all words that my ungrateful kids like to use when I'm enlightening them with my words of wisdom. I added Dry to the selection but found that I was one away. I had considered Vanilla as a potential hot drink above (Vanilla chai anyone?) but it seemed to fit the bill here instead. Sure enough, the green 'unexciting' category was complete.

  • 🟨 Drinks with caffeine: Cocoa, coffee, mate, tea
  • 🟩 Unexciting: Boring, dull, mundane, vanilla
  • 🟦 Comedian's performance: Act, bit, routine, set
  • 🟪 Martini specifications: Dirty, dry, twist, up

I couldn't help but think of my kids again as I spotted Act and Up next to each other, and Twist too. But with no other synonyms for tantrums, I resorted to another line of thinking. It's common for fathers to think of themselves as comedians as well as wise sages, and sure enough Act, Bit, Routine, and Set can all describe a performance on stage.

That left Dirty, Dry, Twist, and Up, which took a little longer to figure out. They are, of course, all ways in which one might ask for a Martini, though the lack of Shaken will disappoint Bond fans. Game complete with only one life lost, beginning with a coffee and ending with a Martini. Just how every good Sunday should be!

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