Looking for Monday’s Connections hints and answers instead? You can find them here:

ForbesNYT “Connections” tips and answers for Monday, December 16thFrom Kris Holt

Hello! I hope your week starts well.

This is my last full day of work this year and I have to admit that I’m more than ready for a break. Don’t worry, I will continue to bring you this column every day. I’m also going to work on a few other little things I’ve always wanted to cross off my to-do list. But otherwise, I’m looking forward to relaxing with my loved ones.

Before we begin, I created a discussion group for Connections and this column on Discord. You can chat with me and other people about any game (and other topics). I’m always curious to see how other people approach the game, so join in! It’s fun.

It’s also the best way to give me feedback on the column, especially on the rare(!) occasions when I mess something up.

Today NYT Connections Hints and answers for Tuesday, December 17th will follow soon.

How to play connections

Connections is a free, popular one New York Times daily pun. You will receive a new puzzle every day at midnight. You can play on that NYT Website or gaming app.

You will be presented with a grid of 16 words. Your task is to divide them into four groups of four by figuring out the connections between them. The groups can be items you can click on, names of research participants, or words preceded by a body part.

Each puzzle has only one solution, and you have to be careful when it comes to words that could fit into more than one category. You can mix up the words to perhaps better see the connections between them.

Each group is color coded. The yellow group is usually the easiest to understand, blue and green are in the middle, and the purple group is usually the most difficult. The purple group often contains puns.

Select four words that you think go together and click Send. If you guess and are wrong, you lose a life. When you’re close to finding the right group, you may see a message saying you’re one word away from the right group, but you still need to figure out which word to swap.

If you make four mistakes, the game is over. Let’s make sure that this doesn’t happen with the help of some tips, and if you really find it difficult, even with today’s ones Connections Answer. Like with Wordle and other similar games, it’s easy to share results with your friends on social media and group chats.

If you have one NYT You can access the publications with the All Access or Games subscription Connections Archive. This includes every previous game from Connectionsso you can go back and play any songs you missed.

Aside from the first 60 or so games, you should be able to find my clues for each grid via Google if you need to! Simply click here and enter the date of the game for which you need hints or answers to the search query.

What are today’s connection notes?

Scroll slowly! Right after the clues for each of today’s Connections Groups, I will reveal what the groups are without immediately telling you what words appear in them.

Today’s 16 words are…

• TISSUE
• CARPET
• WAX
• PLUCK
• PULL
• NERVE
• CLAY
• GRAPH
• GRASS
• ARTERY
• HARD
• HEART
• DRIVE
• GRIT
• CONSTRUCTION
• AVENUE

And the clues for today Connections Groups are:

• Yellow group – courage or determination
• Green Group – which Doc Brown says in the final scene of that he and the gang won’t need them Back to the future
• Blue group – various useful materials made from trees
• Purple Group – Arthur Ashe, center, Philippe Chatrier and Rod Laver show up

What are today’s sorority groups?

Do you need additional help?

Be warned: we’re starting to get into this Spoiler territory.

Today Connections Groups are…

• Yellow Group – Fearlessness
• Green Group – Street
• Blue group – paper types
• Purple group – types of tennis courts

What are today’s connection solutions?

Spoiler alert! Don’t scroll any further down the page until you’re ready to find out today Connections Answer.

This is your final warning!

Today Connections Answers are…

• Yellow Group – Fearlessness (GRIT, HEART, NERVE, PULL)
• Green Group – Street (ARTERY, AVENUE, DRAG, DRIVE)
• Blue Group – Paper Types (CONSTRUCTION, GRAPH, TISSUE, WAX)
• Purple Group – Types of Tennis Courts (CARPET, CLAY, GRASS, HARD)

A perfect game brings me up to four wins in a row! This is what happened to me:

🟩🟩🟩🟩

🟪🟪🟪🟪

🟦🟦🟦🟦

🟨🟨🟨🟨

I moved through this grid like it was nobody’s business. No problems and I must have done it in under 30 seconds.

NERVE and PLUCK opened up the greens for me, while CARPET and GRASS did the same for the purples. CONSTRUCTION and GRAPH then cleared the Blues and left the Yellows to win.

That’s all for today Connections Hints and answers. Be sure to check out my blog tomorrow for hints and the walkthrough for Wednesday’s game if you need it.

PS I’m tempted to recommend it Back to the future – a perfect but slightly messed up film – I have a game for you today. You can play this game on iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch. It used to be a paid app, but today it is free and ad-supported.

Galaxy Mix is a spin-on Suika gamewhich took the Nintendo Switch – and my downtime – by storm last year. Different celestial bodies (stars, planets, etc.) are dropped into a container. When two identical objects touch each other, they combine to form a larger one. The goal is to create a black hole, but apparently only 0.1% of players managed to do so.

There are some twists on the genre here: you can drop a bomb to clear planets that are in the way and reshuffle the board by shaking the screen.

This is a game I’ve found myself returning to again and again this year. I really appreciate the precision with which I position items using my watch face before dropping them, but I also enjoy playing on my phone. It’s a sure thing Galaxy Mix will end up on my list of my favorite games of 2024:

I wish you a wonderful day! Call someone you love!

If you feel like it, please do it Follow my blog for more coverage of Connections and other puns and even some video game news, insights and analysis. It helps me a lot! Keep following me too Bluesky! It’s fun there.