Stuck on today’s game? The NYT Connections bot waits for you to finish, ready to hand over a cold numeric score and tear your logic apart. Registered players get the extra benefit of watching their stats bleed out. Win streaks, completion rates, perfect scores—it’s all tracked. You can nerd out if you want to.
Most people just want to solve the board. Today’s puzzle? It’s messy. The clues are weird, but the blue category has that specific charm of making you feel slightly smarter for three seconds.
Look for a shortened name. That is the key to the blue group.
Here is the breakdown of how the board falls apart.
The Clues
We start easy, end in chaos. That’s usually the plan.
- Yellow: Playing a part.
- Green: Vintage terms.
- Blue: Shortened names.
- Purple: Where athletes compete. Wait, not quite. Look closer.
The Answers
The yellow group is about imitation. Simple.
- copycat
- mime
- mockingbird
- T-1000
Yes. A Terminator cyborg fits right in with the parrot and the mime. Who saw that coming? Nobody.
Green takes a walk backward. These are old-timey words for things sitting in your house right now.
- gramophone
- looking glass
- spectacles
- water closet
Don’t call it a WC unless you want to sound like you live in a Victorian novel.
Blue requires a trick of the tongue. The answers start with nicknames or diminutives.
- billy goat
- dan dan noodles
- rich text
- tom tom
It’s linguistic laziness masked as a pattern. Accept it.
Purple is where most people throw in the towel. The hint says sports venues. It’s a trap. The words actually start with the name of a venue.
- court jester
- diamond ring
- field mouse
- track record
Court, diamond, field, track. It makes sense once you see it. Before that? Just noise.
The Hall of Shame
Some puzzles refuse to be solved easily. If you are curious about what else has broken the internet, look back.
- #1: “Things that can run” covered everything from candidates to mascara. A stretch.
- #2: “Power ___” filled with naps, rangers, and trips. Predictable if you aren’t tired.
- #3: Streets on screen. Elm, Sesame, Jump Street. Cinema and geography mixed up.
- #4: One in a dozen. Eggs, months, jurors, roses. A baker’s nightmare.
- #5: “Things you can set.” Mood, table, record, volleyball. This one still stings.
Will next week be worse? Probably.
We’ll be back with more guesses, more failures, and more coffee. Maybe.
