Looking for a different day?
A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing ‘today’s game’ while others are playing ‘yesterday’s’. If you’re looking for Friday’s puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Friday, December 5 (game #908).
Good morning! Let’s play Connections, the NYT’s clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.
NYT Connections today (game #909) – today’s words
Today’s NYT Connections words are…
- MODERATE
- MONITORSHIP
- AVERAGE
- CAR
- NEWTON
- INCREDIBLE
- MEAN
- TEMPER
- STANDARD
- TOADY
- COOL
- MINION
- SETTLE
- ADDERALL
- MONSTER
- PAR
NYT Connections today (game #909) – hint #1 – group hints
What are some clues for today’s NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: Middling
- GREEN: Calming words
- BLUE: Singular members of animated films
- PURPLE: Words that begin with animals
Need more clues?
We’re firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today’s NYT Connections puzzles…
NYT Connections today (game #909) – hint #2 – group answers
What are the answers for today’s NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: NORM
- GREEN: MOLLIFY
- BLUE: MEMBER OF A TITULAR GROUP IN AN ANIMATION FRANCHISE
- PURPLE: STARTING WITH HERPETOFAUNA
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Connections today (game #909) – the answers
The answers to today’s Connections, game #909, are…
- YELLOW: NORM AVERAGE, MEAN, PAR, STANDARD
- GREEN: MOLLIFY COOL, MODERATE, SETTLE, TEMPER
- BLUE: MEMBER OF A TITULAR GROUP IN AN ANIMATION FRANCHISE CAR, INCREDIBLE, MINION, MONSTER
- PURPLE: STARTING WITH HERPETOFAUNA ADDERALL, MONITORSHIP, NEWTON, TOADY
- My rating: Easy
- My score: Perfect
I’ll be honest, I wasn’t thinking of words STARTING WITH HERPETOFAUNA when I collected ADDERALL, MONITORSHIP, NEWTON, and TOADY together. But I was thinking that they all had types of animals at the beginning.
This, though, is one of the things I love about Connections – that it can simultaneously make you feel dumb and send you down a Googling rabbit hole of knowledge.
That said, I was disappointed that I didn’t get the blue group from the beginning, especially after watching the three Pixar movies in the list dozens of times.
Yesterday’s NYT Connections answers (Friday, December 5, game #908)
- YELLOW: TRICKY COMPLEX, DELICATE, STICKY, TOUGH
- GREEN: STATE OF AFFAIRS DEAL, SITUATION, STATUS, STORY
- BLUE: CLASSIC BOARD GAMES MASTERMIND, MOUSE TRAP, OPERATION, SORRY
- PURPLE: ____TALK BABY, PILLOW, SMALL, SWEET
What is NYT Connections?
NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.
On the plus side, you don’t technically need to solve the final one, as you’ll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What’s more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.
It’s a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.
It’s playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.