Find the links between the words to win today’s game of Connections.
Looking for Saturday’s Connections hints and answers instead? You can find them here:
Hey, gang! I hope you’re having an excellent weekend.
I really want and need to get into better shape. To help with that, a friend suggested that I try an under-desk elliptical. He said he’s been using his regularly and he’s lost several pounds in just a couple of weeks.
This would be part of a broader fitness regimen for me. Since I’m at my desk for seven-plus hours a day anyway, it could be a way to stay active and burn some cals while I’m working. Now I just have to do some research to find the best desk elliptical (if you have any recommendations, let me know!).
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 Sunday, January 12, 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…
- COMETS
- INVENTION
- COIN TOSS
- DEFENDER
- COURT
- ASTEROIDS
- FAIRY TALE
- DRESS COAT
- FICTION
- ROMANCE
- SONIC THE HEDGEHOG
- CENTIPEDE
- CHARM
- FANTASY
- BREAKOUT
- PURSUE
And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:
- Green group — try to win over a crush
- Blue group — common arcade sights in the ’70s and ‘80s
- Purple group — linked by lower-body appendages, perhaps
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 — fabrication
- Green group — woo
- Blue group — classic Atari games
- Purple group — things featuring tails
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 — fabrication (FAIRY TALE, FANTASY, FICTION, INVENTION)
- Green group — woo (CHARM, COURT, PURSUE, ROMANCE)
- Blue group — classic Atari games (ASTEROIDS, BREAKOUT, CENTIPEDE, DEFENDER)
- Purple group — things featuring tails (COIN TOSS, COMETS, DRESS COAT, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG)
I cannot believe I didn’t get this one. My streak is over after seven wins. Here’s how I fared:
🟪🟪🟦🟪
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟦🟪🟦🟦
🟦🟦🟪🟦
🟦🟦🟪🟦
I tried to work backwards here after clocking what I thought were the blues (classic video games), falsehoods (yellows) and to trying to date someone (greens). But I had a near miss with the leftovers, what I assumed would be a purple group of COMETS, COIN TOSS, DEFENDER and DRESS COAT. I was one away from a group there, and DEFENDER could have gone with the video games, so I took a bit of a gamble that didn’t quite pay off. Nuts.
With my dream of the reverse rainbow dead, I quickly knocked off the greens and yellows. I suppose COMETS, ASTEROIDS and SONIC THE HEDGEHOG could have formed a group of things that travel very fast. But no, there was definitely a group of games here.
I made a horrible mistake by not trying to figure out the connection between COMETS, COIN TOSS and DRESS COAT to find the final word/phrase for the purples. Instead, I tried to brute force my way there with multiple guesses of the blues that kept SONIC THE HEDGEHOG in every time. I was sure that had to be one of the blues but nope! I failed to remember that Tails (a cute little fox with two tails that can be used for propulsion) is Sonic’s sidekick.
I’m both amused and very mad at myself about this one!! I often played Sonic 2 with my cousin when we were kids and I always enjoyed playing as Tails to back her up (maybe that explains why I prefer to play as a support in Overwatch 2 these days). So I knew that. I also knew that the blues were all Atari games.
I suspect this game is going to ruin a lot of streaks. But maybe we can get it back on a technicality as Tails did not appear in Sonic The Hedgehog, the original game in the series — he debuted in Sonic 2.
Side note: it took me until an embarrassingly late age to realize that Tails’ real name, Miles Prower, was a pun. It’s “miles per hour.”
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 Monday’s game if you need them.
P.S. Ugh, I’m so annoyed that I don’t want to include a recommendation today.
Just kidding. I need to sing and dance to some loud music to let out this frustration, so here’s “A Certain Shade Of Green” by Incubus (I suppose an Atari Teenage Riot song would be more appropriate but alas):
I also still need to check out Atari 50! I haven’t played the collection yet so I can’t formally recommend it, but it seems cool as heck:
Have a great day! Make sure to drink enough water! 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.
