Daily News York Times 'Clues' and Solutions for January 6, Monday
Hey folks! I hope you're all having an awesome first full week of this year. You've got this!
One of my plans for this year is to keep better track of the things I'm watching, reading, listening to, and playing. I've been meaning to organize more of the things I do in my life using Notion, so that might be the way to go, but for now, at least, I've started making a note of everything in Google Sheets. The spreadsheet already has three Balatro sessions recorded.
Speaking of which, I recently published my list of my top 20 games of 2024. I think there's a little something for everyone in there, so you might find something fun to play by yourself or with family and friends:
Before we dive in, 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 Monday, January 6, 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...
- BLANKET
- BOOT
- BREEZE
- RUM
- PICNIC
- PANT
- UMBRELLA
- PIE
- HEAVE
- ARS
- ABC
- GENERAL
- BROAD
- GASP
- BUT
- PUFF
And the hints for today's Connections groups are:
- Yellow group — wheeze, become winded
- Green group — the overall picture
- Blue group — no sweat
- Purple group — smaller seats
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 — breathe hard
- Green group — catchall
- Blue group — metaphors for easy things
- Purple group — synonyms for rear end minus last letter
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 — breathe hard (GASP, HEAVE, PANT, PUFF)
- Green group — catchall (BLANKET, BROAD, GENERAL, UMBRELLA)
- Blue group — metaphors for easy things (ABC, BREEZE, PICNIC, PIE)
- Purple group — synonyms for rear end minus last letter (ARS, BOOT, BUT, RUM)
Butt (I'm sorry) for a silly mistake, I would have had a perfect game today. Still, I'm happy about getting back-to-back wins. Here's how I fared:
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟩🟪🟨🟩
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟪🟪🟪🟪
The blues stood out to me the instant I noticed ABC. They're associated with phrases like "easy as PIE" and "easy as ABC," and so on.
I wasn't really sure where to head next, so I tried out BLANKET, PANT, UMBRELLA, and BOOT as items of clothing or accessories. That was quite the misstep, as the yellows made their appearance shortly thereafter.
With the smaller grid, the greens became obvious. That left the purples, a connection I hadn't picked up on, for the grand prize. I'll confess, the first thing that popped into my mind when I saw ARS was the football team Arsenal, so I wasn't too far off the mark, albeit I thought that would have been one of the purple words.
So, those words refer to ARSe, BOOTy, BUTt, and RUMp. It's quite telling about our society that we have so many words for that specific body part.
That's all for today's Connections clues and answers. Make sure to check back on my blog tomorrow for hints and the solution for Wednesday's game, if you need them.
P.S. Initially, I wanted to recommend Rihanna's "Umbrella" because it's a fantastic tune, but I don't really feel like sharing a song featuring Jay-Z right now.
Instead, let's opt for another appropriate tune, a true '90s hit, "Baby Got Back." Yes, it's got a raunchy vibe and can be seen as objectifying the female form, but scholarly interpretations view it as a celebration of body positivity and a rejection of certain beauty ideals. I fall into the latter category, so I can appreciate it without hesitation.
Have a fantastic day! Remember to stay hydrated! Reach out to someone you care about!
If you're inclined, please do follow my blog for more coverage of Connections and other word games, as well as some video game news, insights, and analysis. It helps me out a lot! Also, follow me on Bluesky! It's pretty enjoyable there.
- If you're interested in playing 'NYT Connections', you can find out how to do so on the NYT website or Games app. The goal is to arrange 16 words into four groups by figuring out the links between them.
- For today's 'NYT Connections' hints and answers for Monday, January 6, you can check out the provided information. Each group is color-coded, with the yellow group being the easiest and the purple group being the most difficult.
- If you're having trouble solving the 'NYT Connections' puzzle and would like some extra help, you can join the discussion group for 'Connections' on Discord. Here, you can chat with the author and other participants about the game and get hints or answers.
- If you have an NYT All Access or Games subscription, you can access the publication's 'Connections' archive, which includes every previous game of 'Connections'. You can go back and play any of the past games that you've missed.