Here’s some help with today’s Quordle, including hints and the answers.
Looking for Thursday’s Connections hints and answers instead? You can find them here:
Hey, everyone! The weekend is right around the corner, but we’ve got one more game of Connections to enjoy before that.
It’s been a fairly quiet week on my end, work-wise, and in hindsight I probably could have found other ways to be productive. But also it’s January and last week was pretty hectic, so I’m not going to be too self-critical going into the weekend.
Before we get going, I’ve started a discussion group for Connections and this column on Discord. You can chat about each game (and other topics) with me and other folks. I’m always interested to find out how other people approach the game, so join us! It’s fun.
It’s also the best way to give me any feedback about the column, especially on the rare(!) occasions that I mess something up.
Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Friday, January 17, are coming right up.
How To Play Connections
Connections is a free, popular New York Times daily word game. You get a new puzzle at midnight every day. You can play on the NYT website or Games app.
You’re presented with a grid of 16 words. Your task is to arrange them into four groups of four by figuring out the links between them. The groups could be things like items you can click, names for research study participants or words preceded by a body part.
There’s only one solution for each puzzle, and you’ll need to be careful when it comes to words that might fit into more than one category. You can shuffle the words to perhaps help you see links between them.
Each group is color coded. The yellow group is usually the easiest to figure out, blue and green fall in the middle, and the purple group is usually the most difficult one. The purple group often involves wordplay.
Select four words you think go together and press Submit. If you make a guess and you’re incorrect, you’ll lose a life. If you’re close to having a correct group, you might see a message telling you that you’re one word away from getting it right, but you’ll still need to figure out which one to swap.
If you make four mistakes, it’s game over. Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen with the help of some hints, and, if you’re really struggling, today’s Connections answers. As with Wordle and other similar games, it’s easy to share results with your friends on social media and group chats.
If you have an NYT All Access or Games subscription, you can access the publication’s Connections archive. This includes every previous game of Connections, so you can go back and play any of those that you have missed.
Aside from the first 60 games or so, you should be able to find my hints for each grid via Google if you need them! Just click here and add the date of the game for which you need clues or the answers to the search query.
What Are Today’s Connections Hints?
Scroll slowly! Just after the hints for each of today’s Connections groups, I’ll reveal what the groups are without immediately telling you which words go into them.
Today’s 16 words are…
- HIT
- OPERA
- BANGER
- ROSEBUD
- PEPPERONI
- BOP
- EDGE
- LINK
- TAP
- CONTRABASS
- BRAT
- SAFARI
- AUTOHARP
- CHROME
- KNOCK
- SAUSAGE
And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:
- Yellow group — encased minced meat and flavorings
- Green group — collide with forcefully
- Blue group — if you’re not on the NYT Games app right now, you’re likely using one of these instead
- Purple group — we adults deserve a refreshing beverage at the end of a long week
What Are Today’s Connections Groups?
Need some extra help?
Be warned: we’re starting to get into spoiler territory.
Today’s Connections groups are…
- Yellow group — frankfurter
- Green group — strike
- Blue group — web browsers
- Purple group — ending with beer brands
What Are Today’s Connections Answers?
Spoiler alert! Don’t scroll any further down the page until you’re ready to find out today’s Connections answers.
This is your final warning!
Today’s Connections answers are…
- Yellow group — frankfurter (BANGER, BRAT, LINK, SAUSAGE)
- Green group — strike (BOP, HIT, KNOCK, TAP)
- Blue group — web browsers (CHROME, EDGE, OPERA, SAFARI)
- Purple group — ending with beer brands (AUTOHARP, CONTRABASS, PEPPERONI, ROSEBUD)
No real difficulties with this one. My second straight perfect game extends my streak to five games. Here’s how I fared:
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟨🟨🟨🟨
The trio of HIT, BANGER and BOP turned out to be a red herring, despite my initial suspicions. I figured CONTRABASS would probably have some wordplay going on. Why on earth would it be in the grid otherwise?
Nonetheless, I got the blues as swiftly as a (fire)fox. The greens were pretty clear, so those were next up. The grid handily bunched what were obviously the yellows together, but I submitted the purples first even though I didn’t figure out that connection.
I’ve never heard of the beer brand Bass before. Harp is one I haven’t thought about in a very long time. The others are Peroni and Bud(weiser).
I have a bigger problem with the yellows, however. I put it to you that all frankfurters are SAUSAGEs, but not all SAUSAGESs are frankfurters. Indeed, Merriam-Webster defines frankfurter as “a cured cooked SAUSAGE.” I am not a fan of this group.
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 Saturday’s game if you need them.
P.S. For those who aren’t in the know, I’m Scottish, and one of my vary favorite things about my homeland is that we can turn just about anything into an insult by adding a couple of words in front of it.
So, the next time you see a loved one doing something ill-advised, I would recommend calling them “an absolute sausage.” It works with many, many nouns — “you absolute doughnut,” “you absolute spoon,” “you absolute hall monitor.” Try this out, it’s fun (just don’t be mean about it, please!).
Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Call someone you love!
If you’re so inclined, please do follow my blog for more coverage of Connections and other word games and even some video game news, insights and analysis. It helps me out a lot! Also, follow me on Bluesky! It’s fun there.
