Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need clues.
What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Wordle hints and answers, Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.
NYT Connections today (game #493) - today's words
Today's NYT Connections words are…
- PEACE
- PEBBLE
- LATER
- SCISSORS
- ROUND
- CHEERIO
- BYE
- FLAKE
- NEXT
- BRACKET
- SOON
- SEED
- VICTORY
- PUFF
- TWO
- EVENTUALLY
NYT Connections today (game #493) - hint #1 - group hints
What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?
- Yellow: In the end
- Green: Elements of a competition
- Blue: Charm could be one
- Purple: Let your fingers do the talking
Need more clues?
We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…
NYT Connections today (game #493) - hint #2 - group answers
What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: AT SOME FUTURE POINT
- GREEN: PARTS OF A TOURNAMENT SETUP
- BLUE: BIT OF BREAKFAST CEREAL
- PURPLE: WHAT THE OUTSTRETCHED INDEX AND MIDDLE FINGERS CAN REPRESENT
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Connections today (game #493) - the answers
The answers to today's Connections, game #493, are…
- YELLOW: AT SOME FUTURE POINT EVENTUALLY, LATER, NEXT, SOON
- GREEN: PARTS OF A TOURNAMENT SETUP BRACKET, BYE, ROUND, SEED
- BLUE: BIT OF BREAKFAST CEREAL CHEERIO, FLAKE, PEBBLE, PUFF
- PURPLE: WHAT THE OUTSTRETCHED INDEX AND MIDDLE FINGERS CAN REPRESENT PEACE, SCISSORS, TWO, VICTORY
- My rating: Moderate
- My score: Perfect
I'm trying something new with my daily dose of Connections, namely attempting to solve the hardest groups first. It didn't entirely work today – not least because guessing which one the NYT will deem the toughest isn't a sure thing. But I did come up with green followed by purple and then blue, leaving the yellow group by default. Given that I'd already realized what that yellow group was, that meant that today was a rare day in which I genuinely solved all four.
Why am I doing this? No real reason, beyond my seemingly unending desire to make life more difficult for myself. That said, solving the harder ones earlier does make it a lot less likely that you'll fail (obviously). Admittedly, purple was a bit of a shot in the dark for me today. I spotted blue (BIT OF BREAKFAST CEREAL), so left out CHEERIO, FLAKE, PEBBLE and PUFF from my deliberations. And I'd already got green (PARTS OF A TOURNAMENT SETUP).
That left me with eight words: PEACE, SCISSORS, TWO, VICTORY, EVENTUALLY, LATER, NEXT, SOON. Clearly the final four of those would form a group, so I played the other four first and was pleased to see them change color. I then played the cereals group, and finally the AT SOME FUTURE POINT quartet, meaning I went at least some way towards the NYT's top score, the 'Reverse rainbow' where you go purple, blue, green, yellow. Maybe tomorrow will be the day.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Tuesday, 15 October, game #492)
- YELLOW: FOOTBALL POSITIONS CENTER, GUARD, QUARTERBACK, SAFETY
- GREEN: CABLE CHANNELS DISCOVERY, HISTORY, NICKELODEON, OXYGEN
- BLUE: FICTIONAL CLOWNS HOMEY, JOKER, PENNYWISE, RONALD
- PURPLE: WHAT “D” MIGHT STAND FOR DEFENSE, DEMOCRAT, DIMENSIONAL, DRIVE
What is NYT Connections?
NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.
On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.
It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.
It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
