Clues And Answers For Today’s Game
Find the links between the words to win today’s game of Connections.
Each day’s game of NYT Connections goes live at midnight local time. Before we get to today’s Connections hints and answers, here are Sunday’s:
Happy Monday, Connectors! I hope you had a terrific weekend. I’m glad to be back with you here until Friday.
For the newcomers out there, I kick off the Monday edition of this column with an upbeat song. The aim is to lighten your spirits, put a smile on your face and maybe get your toes tapping or whole body moving.
I don’t know a whole lot about K-pop. Some artists (Blackpink, Le Sserafim and, of course, BTS) and songs from the scene sometimes blip on my radar. This one, “Lemon Drop” by Ateez, did just that a couple of days ago and it’s an absolute bop. I don’t think we, as a society, have agreed on the song of the summer yet, but this feels like a strong contender:
Before we begin, we have a great little community on Discord, where we chat about NYT Connections, the rest of the NYT games and all kinds of other stuff. Everyone who has joined has been lovely. It’s a fun hangout spot, and you’re more than welcome to hang out with us.
Play Puzzles & Games on Forbes
Discord is also the best way to give me any feedback about the column, especially on the rare (or not-so-rare) occasions that I mess something up. I don’t look at the comments or Twitter much. You can also read my weekend editions of this column at my new newsletter, Pastimes.
Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Monday, June 16 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’s 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 our hints 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…
- SHIPSHAPE
- INANIMATE
- CARBON
- ROD
- GLASS
- WOODEN
- BRACKET
- GARNISH
- BUSBOY
- TRAINEE
- FLAT
- STRAW
- BLANK
- HOOK
- COASTER
- CURTAIN
And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:
- 🟨 Yellow group — where’s the emotion?
- 🟩 Green group — important items to help protect your home from prying eyes
- 🟦 Blue group — certain evening establishments might become quite messy without these
- 🟪 Purple group — metropolis and cartography would fit in here
One Word For Each Connections Group
Need some extra help?
Be warned: we’re starting to get into spoiler territory.
Let’s take a look at one word for each group.
Today’s Connections word hints are…
- 🟨 Yellow group — FLAT
- 🟩 Green group — ROD
- 🟦 Blue group — STRAW
- 🟪 Purple group — CARBON
What Are Today’s Connections Groups?
Today’s Connections groups are…
- 🟨 Yellow group — expressionless
- 🟩 Green group — drapery hanging items
- 🟦 Blue group — what a drink is served with
- 🟪 Purple group — starting with methods of transportation
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 — expressionless (BLANK, FLAT, INANIMATE, WOODEN)
- 🟩 Green group — drapery hanging items (BRACKET, CURTAIN, HOOK, ROD)
- 🟦 Blue group — what a drink is served with (COASTER, GARNISH, GLASS, STRAW)
- 🟪 Purple group — starting with methods of transportation (BUSBOY, CARBON, SHIPSHAPE, TRAINEE)
A really straightforward game for me today.
For once, the purples were clear as day right out of the gate. SHIPSHAPE and BUSSBOY didn’t make sense with anything else, and it only took me a moment to find the other two words.
GARNISH was then my entry point into the blues, and COASTER confirmed my suspicion. The greens then fit together very neatly, as did the yellows.
No problem at all with this one, and I even got a reverse rainbow on the 111th day of my current win streak. Here’s my grid:
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟨🟨🟨🟨
That’s all there is to it for today’s Connections clues and answers. Be sure to check my blog tomorrow for hints and the solution for Tuesday’s game if you need them.
P.S. I mentioned this song in a hint the other day and now feels like the right time to recommend it. An all-time classic:
Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Be kind to yourself and others! Call someone you love!
Please follow my blog for more coverage of NYT Connections and other word games, and even some video game news, insights and analysis. It helps me out a lot! Sharing this column with other people who play Connections would be appreciated too. You can also read my weekend editions of this column at my new newsletter, Pastimes.