If you’re looking for the Connections answer for Saturday, December 6, 2025, read on—I’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solutions to all four categories. Along the way, I’ll explain the meanings of the trickier words and we’ll learn how everything fits together. Beware, there are spoilers below for December 6, NYT Connections #909! Read on if you want some hints (and then the answer) to today’s Connections game.
If you want an easy way to come back to our Connections hints every day, bookmark this page. (If you play Wordle, Strands, or Quordle, check out our hints for those games, too.)
Below, I’ll give you some oblique hints at today’s Connections answers. And farther down the page, I’ll reveal the themes and the answers. Scroll slowly and take just the hints you need!
Credit: Connections/NYT
The category types in today’s Connections puzzle
Here are spoiler-free hints that describe the type of each category in today’s Connections:
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Yellow category – Synonyms.
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Green category – Synonyms.
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Blue category – Related nouns/pop culture.
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Purple category – Wordplay.
Hints for the themes in today’s Connections puzzle
Here are some spoiler-free hints for the groupings in today’s Connections:
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Yellow category – Unremarkable.
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Green category – What you might have to do to someone who easily flies off the handle.
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Blue category – They’re characters.
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Purple category – They have animal names hidden inside.
BEWARE: Spoilers follow for today’s Connections puzzle!
We’re about to give away some of the answers. Scroll slowly if you don’t want the whole thing spoiled. (The full solution is a bit further down.)
A heads up about the tricky parts
MODERATE is a verb.
If you get rid of the Y in TOADY, you get “toad.”
INCREDIBLE refers to a family/team of animated superheroes.
What are the categories in today’s Connections?
DOUBLE BEWARE: THE SOLUTION IS BELOW
Ready to learn the answers to today’s Connections puzzle? I give them all away below.
What are the yellow words in today’s Connections?
The yellow grouping is considered to be the most straightforward. The theme for today’s yellow group is NORM and the words are: AVERAGE, MEAN, PAR, STANDARD.
What are the green words in today’s Connections?
The green grouping is supposed to be the second-easiest. The theme for today’s green category is MOLLIFY and the words are: COOL, MODERATE, SETTLE, TEMPER.
What are the blue words in today’s Connections?
The blue grouping is the second-hardest. The theme for today’s blue category is MEMBER OF A TITULAR GROUP IN AN ANIMATION FRANCHISE and the words are: CAR, INCREDIBLE, MINION, MONSTER.
What are the purple words in today’s Connections?
The purple grouping is considered to be the hardest. The theme for today’s purple category is STARTING WITH HERPETOFAUNA and the words are: ADDERALL, MONITORSHIP, NEWTON, TOADY.
How I solved today’s Connections
ADDERALL seems like a strange one for Connections. Maybe it’s more about the “adder” (type of snake), “add” (math function), or “all.” No idea what TOADY could be about, either.
MEAN, PAR, STANDARD, and AVERAGE could all be synonyms. MODERATE would work there, too. I think MEAN is the one that doesn’t fit as well. Nope, “one away.”
COOL, TEMPER, and SETTLE could be verbs for calming something down.
What do you think so far?
Oh, I bet NEWTON, TOADY, and ADDERALL could go together because they start with reptile and amphibian words: newt, toad, adder? Maybe MONITORSHIP (monitor lizard?) could go with them. 🟪 Nice, apparently HERPETOFAUNA is a word for the reptiles and amphibians of an area.
Maybe MODERATE actually goes with COOL, SETTLE, and TEMPER. 🟩
Yeah, so MEAN is what goes with STANDARD, AVERAGE, and PAR. 🟨
That leaves INCREDIBLE, CAR, MONSTER, and MINION. Could those all be parts of Pixar titles? The Incredibles, Cars, Monsters Inc.? I’m not sure about MINION. Maybe it’s just shortened versions of characters from animated films, because I associate MINION with Despicable Me, which isn’t a Pixar movie. 🟦 Yep.
Connections
Puzzle #909
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How to play Connections
I have a full guide to playing Connections, but here’s a refresher on the rules:
First, find the Connections game either on the New York Times website or in their Games app (formerly the Crossword app). You’ll see a game board with 16 tiles, each with one word or phrase. Your job is to select a group of four tiles that have something in common. Often they are all the same type of thing (for example: RAIN, SLEET, HAIL, and SNOW are all types of wet weather) but sometimes there is wordplay involved (for example, BUCKET, GUEST, TOP TEN, and WISH are all types of lists: bucket list, guest list, and so on).
Select four items and hit the Submit button. If you guessed correctly, the category and color will be revealed. (Yellow is easiest, followed by green, then blue, then purple.) If your guess was incorrect, you’ll get a chance to try again.
You win when you’ve correctly identified all four groups. But if you make four mistakes before you finish, the game ends and the answers are revealed.
How to win Connections
The most important thing to know to win Connections is that the groupings are designed to be tricky. Expect to see overlapping groups. For example, one puzzle seemed to include six breakfast foods: BACON, EGG, PANCAKE, OMELET, WAFFLE, and CEREAL. But BACON turned out to be part of a group of painters along with CLOSE, MUNCH, and WHISTLER, and EGG was in a group of things that come by the dozen (along with JUROR, ROSE, and MONTH). So don’t hit “submit” until you’ve confirmed that your group of four contains only those four things.
If you’re stuck, another strategy is to look at the words that seem to have no connection to the others. If all that comes to mind when you see WHISTLER is the painting nicknamed “Whistler’s Mother,” you might be on to something. When I solved that one, I ended up googling whether there was a painter named Close, because Close didn’t fit any of the obvious themes, either.
Another way to win when you’re stuck is, obviously, to read a few helpful hints–which is why we share these pointers every day. Check back tomorrow for the next puzzle!
Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Connections.
