The New York Times’ Connections puzzle challenges players to group words based on shared themes. Today’s iteration (#899) is considered tricky, particularly the purple category, which requires unconventional thinking. If you’re stuck, here’s a breakdown of the hints and solutions.
Puzzle Breakdown & Scoring
The Times now offers a Connections Bot that scores your performance, tracking completion rate, perfect scores, and streaks. This adds a gamified layer for players who enjoy data-driven analysis of their puzzle-solving skills.
Hints for Each Category
The puzzle is divided into four color-coded categories, ranked by difficulty:
- Yellow: This group involves verbs suggesting potential.
- Green: This category centers around common women’s nicknames.
- Blue: The theme here is financial abbreviations.
- Purple: This is the most challenging, requiring a backwards approach to animal names.
Complete Solutions
Here are the correct groupings for today’s Connections puzzle:
- Yellow: can, could, may, might – These all represent verbs indicating possibility.
- Green: Deb, Jan, Kat, Sue – These are frequently used nicknames for women.
- Blue: APR, CFO, IRA, SEC – These are standard abbreviations used in the financial sector.
- Purple: flow (wolf), god (dog), mar (ram), tab (bat) – This category requires recognizing the words when spelled backwards.
Previous Difficult Puzzles
Past Connections puzzles have included unconventional categories that challenge players’ assumptions. Some of the toughest include:
- #5: “Things you can set” (mood, record, table, volleyball)
- #4: “One in a dozen” (egg, juror, month, rose)
- #3: “Streets on screen” (Elm, Fear, Jump, Sesame)
- #2: “Power ___” (nap, plant, Ranger, trip)
- #1: “Things that can run” (candidate, faucet, mascara, nose)
These puzzles demonstrate the game’s tendency to test associative thinking beyond literal definitions.
The Connections puzzle continues to evolve, blending logic with lateral thinking. Players who adapt to unconventional themes will consistently improve their performance.
