Find the links between the words to win today’s game of Connections.
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Each day’s game of NYT Connections goes live at midnight local time. Before today’s NYT Connections hints, here’s what you missed on Sunday:
Hey there, Connectors. I hope you had a fabulous weekend. I’m delighted to be back with you for another weekday run of this column. If you enjoy reading it half as much as I love putting it together, you’re gonna have a good time.
As you may know by now (or if you’re new here, welcome! I hope you stop by on the regular), it’s become a tradition to start the Monday edition of this column with a fun, upbeat song. If I can help lift your mood and maybe even get you dancing a little, well, that would be just wonderful.
A certain band I really like just shared a playlist of songs they like to play during changeovers between their openers and then before their own headlining set. It features a bunch of EDM remixes of rock and metal tunes.
One of the tracks is a take on Panic at the Disco’s “High Hopes.” I like the original version of the song quite a bit. It’s an uplifting track and, in my opinion, trumpets automatically make any song better. This remix by Two Friends doesn’t have much in the way of a brass section, but it’s a lot of fun all the same:
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Before we start, I want to mention the great community we have on Discord, where we chat about Connections, the rest of the NYT games and all kinds of other stuff. It’s a lovely, welcoming group of folks. I like to call it our cozy little corner of the internet. You’re more than welcome to join us. Don’t be shy!
Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Monday, December 8 are coming right up. Let’s get rolling!
NYT Connections – How To Play
Connections is a free New York Times daily word game that you can play on the NYT’s website or Games app. If you have an NYT All Access or Games subscription, you can access the Connections archive, which includes every previous game.
Connections presents you with a grid of 16 words (sometimes phrases, symbols or numbers). The aim is to arrange them into four groups of four. You don’t know how they hit together or what the category for each group is: that’s what you have to figure out.
There’s only one correct solution and there are often red herrings. You can guess incorrectly three times. A fourth wrong guess, and it’s game over.
Each group is color coded. The yellow group is usually the easiest to deduce, followed by blue, green and purple. Often, the yellow and green groups have synonyms, the blues have cultural references and the purples have some kind of wordplay involved. But this is not a hard and fast rule. Be ready for curveballs – part of the fun of Connections is in how the NYT shakes things up to keep you on your toes.
As with Wordle and similar games, it’s easy to share results with your friends using an emoji-based grid. The game tracks your progress too.
Many players take pride in having long win streaks or getting a reverse rainbow – correctly guessing the purple, blue, green and yellow groups in that order with no mistakes. That adds an extra little challenge.
NYT Connections Hints – Today’s Word List
Scroll slowly! I’ll first give you a list of today’s words, then a hint for each category. After that, I’ll reveal one word that goes into each group. Then I’ll tell you the category names, followed by the full answers.
Today’s 16 words are…
- VINE
- WING
- RODEO
- EGG
- COWBOY
- SOFA
- STAR
- ROE
- MINK
- SPUR
- SUNSET
- URGE
- MAVERICK
- MULHOLLAND
- PUSH
- PARS
NYT Connections Hints
And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:
- 🟨 Yellow group — offer encouragement
- 🟩 Green group — wilshere, ventura and melrose would fit in here
- 🟦 Blue group — athletes who might try to be the hero and become lone stars
- 🟪 Purple group — as with ben and ria, it may be worth taking a short break here
NYT Connections Hints – One Answer Per Group
Need some extra help?
Be warned: we’re starting to get into spoiler territory.
Let’s take a look at one answer for each group.
Here we go…
- 🟨 Yellow group — SPUR
- 🟩 Green group — VINE
- 🟦 Blue group — WING
- 🟪 Purple group — ROE
NYT Connections Hints – Groups/Categories
Today’s Connections groups are…
- 🟨 Yellow group — goad, with “on”
- 🟩 Green group — famous streets in Los Angeles
- 🟦 Blue group — member of a Dallas pro sports team
- 🟪 Purple group — European capitals minus second-to-last letter
NYT 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 last chance to look away.
This is your final warning!
Today’s Connections answers are…
- 🟨 Yellow group — goad, with “on” (EGG, PUSH, SPUR, URGE)
- 🟩 Green group — famous streets in Los Angeles (MULHOLLAND, RODEO, SUNSET, VINE)
- 🟦 Blue group — member of a Dallas pro sports team (COWBOY, MAVERICK, STAR, WING)
- 🟪 Purple group — European capitals minus second-to-last letter (MINK, PARS, ROE, SOFA)
The greens were up first for me today. I thought those were obvious as soon as I got to MULHOLLAND while writing out the word list.
PUSH and URGE were my gateway into the yellows. No issue there. I’m not sure about the category title though: “encourage” seems like a better word to use than “urge.”
I thought of COWBOY, MAVERICK and STAR (as in a sheriff’s badge) as Wild West-related things at first. After a moment, though, I thought of the Dallas sports teams. I’m ashamed to admit I don’t know much about the WNBA, but WING was the only other word that made sense here.
That left the purples. I had absolutely no idea here, so those were the leftovers for me today. They refer to Minsk, Paris, Rome and Sofia.
My streak now sits at 282 wins. How did you get on today?
Here’s my grid:
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟪🟪🟪🟪
Want to know more about how everything fits together? Let’s explore today’s game in more depth in my NYT Connections Answers Explained column here.
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’m a big fan of bands I like releasing holiday songs, either originals or covers. The legendary Northern Irish indie band Ash recorded a version of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” I think this is just swell:
Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Be kind to yourself and each other! Call someone you love!
Please follow my blog for more NYT Connections hints and help with 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 newsletter, Pastimes.
