Looking for today's Connections answers? The Connections answers on January 19 for puzzle #222 are a little easier than yesterday's, with the Connections Companion rating this puzzle's difficulty at 3.0 of 5.
Every day, we update this article with Connections hints and tips to help you find all 4 of today's answers. And if the hints aren't enough, you'll find all 4 answers below, with the category titles and the correlating words. Plus, we're including a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #221, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.
Spoilers lie ahead for Connections #222. Only read on if you want to know today's Connections answers.
Today's Connections answer — hints to help you solve it
Unlike our guide to today's Wordle answer, where we recommend the best Wordle start words as your strategy, solving Connections relies on identifying connecting categories among 16 words. Each category's difficulty level is represented by a color; yellow is the easiest grouping, and purple is the most challenging. Once you've made 4 mistakes in your guesses, the answers will be revealed, so hints can be helpful.
If you need hints to solve the groupings, then here are the themes of each, based on the order of difficulty:
- 🟨 Yellow: Sweet tooth
- 🟩 Green: 1995 Radiohead hit
- 🟦 Blue: Family-friendly swearing
- 🟪 Purple: Famous verbal gymnastics
These hints should get you at least some of the way towards finding today's Connections answers. If not, then you can read on for bigger clues; or, if you just want to know the answer, then scroll down further.
Alright then, here's a larger hint: Today's grid may look to some like the ingredients from a recipe book, but take note: there's no cooking involved, merely a sweet seasoning! And remember, if you make any mistakes, don't swear in front of the kids...
Today's Connections answers
So, what are today's Connections answers for game #222?
Drumroll, please...
- 🟨 Sundae toppings: Cherry, Fudge, Nuts, Sprinkles
- 🟩 Leave high and dry: Desert, Ditch, Maroon, Strand
- 🟦 "Phooey!": Curses, Darn, Rats, Shoot
- 🟪 Words in tongue twisters: Fuzzy, Peppers, Seashells, Woodchuck
My insatiable sweet tooth finally made itself of some use today as I found the sugar-coated yellow category within seconds, combining Cherry, Fudge, Nuts, and Sprinkles as tantalising sundae toppings.
Presumably, the fiendish Connections gamemasters figured that the word Peppers might prompt a quandary as a potential match with the above foodstuffs, especially given the presence of Nuts leading to thoughts of a stir fry.
But I swerved that savoury pitfall in favor of another, as I was convinced Peppers and Maroon would be part of some form of Pop music category (Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Maroon 5). But I was certainly playing the wrong tune here. Curses!
Which brings me neatly to the blue category, which any parent with young children should find with little drama such is our tendency to find U-rated exclamations of dismay. Darn, Rats, and Shoot complete the "Phooey!" category.
Seashells? Woodchuck? It can only be tongue twisters of course, and I soon found a third with our old friend (pickled) Peppers. But that fourth proved elusive. Unsure, I threw in the word Desert, only to lose my first life of the day. One away.
Desert was the obvious outlier, but it wasn't to be left high and dry when I combined it with Strand, Maroon and Ditch to complete the green category. This left me with my final tongue twister, the word Fuzzy. Game complete, and for an added bonus, I now have a new tongue twister to tell my kids. For Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear, apparently...
Yesterday's Connections answers
Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Connections answers for game #221, which had a difficulty rating of 3.5 out of 5, according to the Connections Companion.
Bright colors flashed before me almost immediately in today's game, though I felt a little dubious when I entered Blue, Green, Scarlet, and White as my first answer. With no theme in mind, it felt a little too simplistic. Sure enough, my answer was swotted away, but with the consolation of knowing I was only one away.
Yellow must be the last piece of this vibrant jigsaw, but which other shade could it replace? Fortunate to have been at the 2014 World Cup, the rhythm and beats of the bustling Rio streets have stayed with me a decade on, and I soon spotted the pattern. That Yellow is canary yellow, of course, and with Blue, Green, and White it forms the famous flag of Brazil. Blue category complete.
- 🟨 Show off: Grandstand, Peacock, Posture, Strut
- 🟩 Foremost: Main, Paramount, Prime, Supreme
- 🟦 Colors in Brazil's flag: Blue, Green, White, Yellow
- 🟪 _____ Letter: Chain, Cover, Love, Scarlet
Paramount, Peacock, and Prime had me floundering for a fourth term that would complete what was surely a category of popular streaming services. But with no Apple, Disney, or Netflix in sight, I was forced to reconfigure my aim.
Remembering that Peacock can also mean "to show off", and with the great Brazilian soccer teams still in the back of my mind, I added Grandstand, Posture and Strut to complete the yellow category with, rather fortunately, no lives lost.
With Paramount and Prime still available, I took myself out of the mind of a tech-enthralled Millennial and into the pre-digital brain of a baby boomer X to consider definitions for these words before they became synonymous with on-demand TV. It's fair to say that was a premier tactic, leading to the aforementioned two words joining Main and Supreme to complete the green category: Foremost.
That left Chain, Cover, Love, Scarlet, and as I figured out the theme and hit submit, it's fair to say I'd enjoyed a red letter day!
Connections tips — how to win Connections
Connections relies more on your deductive skills and general knowledge, and you also don't get to know which word (or words) don't belong in your guessed groupings. Only if you've included one incorrect word, will the game tell you so.
To win Connections, you'll want to take your time looking at all 16 words before making your first guess. Do any words have more than pronunciation? Do any of the words mean more than one thing? Are any of the words part of larger phrases?
Often times, the answer that jumps out at your first will intentionally mislead you. That's why identifying any possible 5-word categories is a good strategy to start. Bookmark them and come back to them after you've solved another category or two, and it should help you figure out which of the 5 words belongs in a different category.
Most Connections categories aren't incredibly obvious. It's common for the editor to use phrases, puns and other tricky topics that will require you to think. If you're stuck on the categories, cycle through each word in the grid and brainstorm possible categories that word fits into, even if you don't see other related words in the puzzle.
What is NYT Connections?
Connections is a category matching game, launched as a beta experience on June 12, 2023. It then joined the NYT Games app (iOS, Android) officially on August 28, 2023. This app is how people can play the daily New York Times Crossword and ultra-viral game Wordle; however, you need a paid subscription for crossword access, while Wordle and Connections are free to play.
In Connections, you're presented with 16 words and need to group them into 4, 4-word categories. There are often words intended to mislead you, or seemingly 5-word categories. Your goal is to group the words properly without exceeding 4 guesses. If you can't solve it within 4 guesses, you've failed, and the answers will be revealed.
What time does the Connections puzzle come out?
The NYT Connections puzzle comes out daily. The game is refreshed at your device's midnight local time.
Where to play Connections
You can play Connections on the New York Times Game App, available for iOS/iPadOS and Android. If you're on a computer or your device's browser, you can access NYT Connections online here.
