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 clues.
What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Wordle hints and answers, Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.
Marc is TechRadar’s Global Editor in Chief and has been obsessed with Wordle and its ilk for more than two years. He's authored dozens of articles on the game for TechRadar, including a daily today's Wordle answer column and a detailed analysis of the most common letters in Wordle in every position. He's also played every Wordle ever and only lost once and yes, he takes it all too seriously.
NYT Connections today (game #471) - today's words
Today's NYT Connections words are…
- BALLOON
- BOOK
- MODEL
- BANNER
- NOVEL
- AMBASSADOR
- CONFETTI
- STREAMER
- SECURE
- CREATIVE
- RESERVE
- FRESH
- ORIGINAL
- GARLAND
- INFLUENCER
- CHARTER
NYT Connections today (game #471) - hint #1 - group hints
What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?
- Yellow: Innovative
- Green: Lay claim to something beforehand
- Blue: Put them up and celebrate
- Purple: Instagrammers?
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 #471) - hint #2 - group answers
What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: INSPIRED
- GREEN: PROCURE IN ADVANCE
- BLUE: BIT OF PARTY DECORATION
- PURPLE: ONLINE PERSONALITY
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Connections today (game #471) - the answers
The answers to today's Connections, game #471, are…
- YELLOW: INSPIRED CREATIVE, FRESH, NOVEL, ORIGINAL
- GREEN: PROCURE IN ADVANCE BOOK, CHARTER, RESERVE, SECURE
- BLUE: BIT OF PARTY DECORATION BALLOON, BANNER, CONFETTI, GARLAND
- PURPLE: ONLINE PERSONALITY AMBASSADOR, INFLUENCER, MODEL, STREAMER
- My rating: Easy
- My score: 1 mistake
Though I did make one mistake today, I'm not beating myself up about it – because really there was no way I could have known which answer was the genuine one. This is a common theme in Connections: the inclusion of answers that act as red herrings due to their possible inclusion in multiple categories. Today I assembled three-quarters of the ONLINE PERSONALITY group, which ended up being the purple one, in the form of INFLUENCER, MODEL and STREAMER. I added in CREATIVE – because that very much is another type of online personality – but it turned out the final one was the slightly more tenuous AMBASSADOR. CREATIVE instead went in the INSPIRED yellow group, which also made sense.
None of this unduly troubled me, because this was another relatively easy Connections game, and I ticked off the others with no real problems.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Monday, 23 September, game #470)
- YELLOW: NOT SMOOTH, AS TERRAIN BUMPY, ROUGH, RUGGED, UNEVEN
- GREEN: BIT OF LAND FOR GROWING BED, PARCEL, PATCH, PLOT
- BLUE: MEMBER OF A CARTOON DUO CHIP, ROCKY, SCRATCHY, STITCH
- PURPLE: ___ PARK AMUSEMENT, NATIONAL, PARALLEL, SOUTH
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.
