Looking for today's Connections answers? The Connections answers on January 20 for puzzle #223 are easier than recent editions, with the Connections Companion rating this puzzle's difficulty at 2.5 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, #222, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.
Spoilers lie ahead for Connections #223. 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: Downward curve
- 🟩 Green: Can we have a quick word?
- 🟦 Blue: Do this like nobody's watching
- 🟪 Purple: Fond of a pacifier
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: Some of today's Connections answers could find yourself thinking of the bathroom, but wash away that thought and instead consider how you might react to your favorite music in the comfort of your own home.
Today's Connections answers
So, what are today's Connections answers for game #223?
Drumroll, please...
- 🟨 Decline: Dip, Drop, Fall, Sink
- 🟩 Move with speed: Blaze, Fly, Race, Tear
- 🟦 Kinds of dance: Modern, Salsa, Swing, Tap
- 🟪 Baby ______: Boom, Carrot, Shower, Talk
Tap, Shower, Sink... we find ourselves in the bathroom with today's Connections answers surely? But, try as I might, I had no luck finding a fourth word that would fit the theme.
Some people like to sing in the shower but it's probably best to avoid dancing in there, and that tenuous segue brings me to the first category I found today. Tap is not only another term for faucet but is, of course, a type of dance, as is Modern, Salsa, and Swing.
After a brief consideration of themes of fishing (Fly) and microphones (Boom), I felt suitably stumped. But pondering my decline soon helped, as Dip, Drop, Fall, and Sink rang a little too true for comfort to complete the yellow category.
Fortunes turned, I raced to complete the green category, adding Blaze, Fly, and Tear to, yep, Race, for a full set of 'Move with Speed'. Result!
This left Boom, Carrot, Shower, and Talk... though I was still none the wiser about what connected them when I hit submit. Then the purple category all became apparent. As ever, the trick to solving Connections, is to take baby steps...
Yesterday's Connections answers
Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Connections answers for game #222, which had a difficulty rating of 3.0 out of 5, according to the Connections Companion.
My insatiable sweet tooth finally made itself of some use today as I found the sugar-coated yellow category within seconds, combining Cherry, Fudge, Nuts, and Sprinkles as tantalising sundae toppings.
Presumably, the fiendish Connections gamemasters figured that the word Peppers might prompt a quandary as a potential match with the above foodstuffs, especially given the presence of Nuts leading to thoughts of a stir fry.
But I swerved that savoury pitfall in favor of another, as I was convinced Peppers and Maroon would be part of some form of Pop music category (Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Maroon 5). But I was certainly playing the wrong tune here. Curses!
- 🟨 Sundae toppings: Cherry, Fudge, Nuts, Sprinkles
- 🟩 Leave high and dry: Desert, Ditch, Maroon, Strand
- 🟦 "Phooey!": Curses, Darn, Rats, Shoot
- 🟪 Words in tongue twisters: Fuzzy, Peppers, Seashells, Woodchuck
Which brings me neatly to the blue category, which any parent with young children should find with little drama such is our tendency to find U-rated exclamations of dismay. Darn, Rats, and Shoot complete the "Phooey!" category.
Seashells? Woodchuck? It can only be tongue twisters of course, and I soon found a third with our old friend (pickled) Peppers. But that fourth proved elusive. Unsure, I threw in the word Desert, only to lose my first life of the day. One away.
Desert was the obvious outlier, but it wasn't to be left high and dry when I combined it with Strand, Maroon and Ditch to complete the green category. This left me with my final tongue twister, the word Fuzzy. Game complete, and for an added bonus, I now have a new tongue twister to tell my kids. For Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear, apparently...
