Clues And Answers For Today’s Game

Hey there, Connectors! Welcome to the start of a new week! I’m happy to be back with you for more Connections fun.

As you may know by now, I like to start the Monday editions of this column with a fun, upbeat song. The idea is to hopefully lift your spirits and maybe get you dancing a bit.

I can’t believe I’ve made it this long without using an ABBA song, so let’s fix that right now:

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.

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 23 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…

• HISTORICAL
• OLD FASHIONED
• SKINNY
• BELL
• SUN
• FLARE
• LITERARY
• MOM
• OLD MAN
• COCKTAIL
• FAREWELL
• YOUNG ADULT
• COLLINS
• BOYFRIEND
• SPECULATIVE
• SHOT

And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:

• 🟨 Yellow group — like software, these garments often have patches
• 🟩 Green group — get this and it might be a fantasy, if not, perhaps a horror tale
• 🟦 Blue group — like time, spring, green hills, river and winner
• 🟪 Purple group — pony, yard and sherry 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 — MOM
• 🟩 Green group — YOUNG ADULT
• 🟦 Blue group — OLD MAN
• 🟪 Purple group —OLD FASHIONED

What Are Today’s Connections Groups?

Today’s Connections groups are…

• 🟨 Yellow group — kinds of jeans
• 🟩 Green group — fiction categories
• 🟦 Blue group — words in Hemingway titles
• 🟪 Purple group — _____ glass glassware

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 — kinds of jeans (BOYFRIEND, FLARE, MOM, SKINNY)
• 🟩 Green group — fiction categories (HISTORICAL, LITERARY, SPECULATIVE, YOUNG ADULT)
• 🟦 Blue group — words in Hemingway titles (BELL, FAREWELL, OLD MAN, SUN)
• 🟪 Purple group — _____ glass glassware (COCKTAIL, COLLINS, OLD FASHIONED, SHOT)

There were another bunch of alcohol-related terms here, which was interesting as we had the same thing a couple of days ago. OLD FASHIONED, SKINNY, COCKTAIL, SHOT and COLLINS. But COCKTAIL is also the title of a drama film, as are YOUNG ADULT and (The) FAREWELL. Hmm.

But! YOUNG ADULT is also a type of fiction. As are the rest of the greens, so that took care of my first group of the day.

I then realized that we weren’t talking about drinks specifically – an OLD FASHIONED is a type of COCKTAIL, and it wouldn’t make sense for them to go together in that vein – but glassware. Once I clocked SHOT, that group was clear enough. Purples, sorted.

The last two groups were a little tricky. I thought at first that SUN, FLARE, FAREWELL and BELL would go together as a group marking the passage of time or signalling or something like that. But nah.

Then FLARE and SKINNY melded together in my brain. That gave way to jeans. MOM went with them too. It took me an astonishingly long time to remember that BOYFRIEND jeans are a thing – I am not sure I’ve ever seen those in the flesh. BELL (bottoms) seemed like a red herring there.

That left the blues to wrap things up. I am ashamed to admit I lacked the literary knowledge to have figured this group out.

The Ernest Hemingway works referred to are For Whom the BELL Tolls, A FAREWELL to Arms, The OLD MAN and the Sea and The SUN Also Rises.

No perfect game, today, but that’s 118 wins in a row. Here’s the 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. Given the blue group, I was tempted to go with “For Whom The Bell Tolls” by Metallica as today’s recommendation, but it doesn’t quite fit the upbeat vibe we strive for on Mondays.

But getting that in my head did put me in the mood for something a little heavier. And what better way to fit the bill than with my current obsession, Electric Callboy?

This so-called party metal band are absolutely fantastic, and they’ve got a great song for summer. “We Got The Moves” is one of Electric Callboy’s best-known songs. It’s part-metalcore anthem and part-rave track with a poppy, summery chorus. It’s all about partying and having a good time.

This maybe won’t be for everyone, but hey, it’s my column. And I wouldn’t recommend something I don’t think folks would like. So, give it a shot. You might find that you love it too.

I would note that the first seven seconds or so of the video are perhaps NSFW (that cocktail thing is pretty eyebrow raising) and some other shots are very suggestive. There’s a swear in the first verse too. It’s still a very fun and silly video for a killer song:

Electric Callboy usually end their live shows with “We Got The Moves.” Over the last few months, I’ve watched many, many videos of it being performed. I cannot get enough of how loud the crowd is when singing the “döp-dödödö-döp” part of the bridge every dang time.

I must go to an Electric Callboy show as soon as possible. I watched two livestreams of their shows over the last few days. I need to experience this in person so ridiculously much, though I would definitely be at the back somewhere:

Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Be kind to yourself and each other! 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.