NYT Connections Today – Hints and Answers for Thursday, October 3 (Game #480)
Good morning! Let’s play Connections, the NYT’s clever word game that challenges you to group answers into different categories. It can be tricky, so read on if you need pointers.
What should you do when you’re done? Of course, play some word games. I also have daily Wordle Hints and Answers, Strands Hints and Answers and Quordle Hints and Answers articles if you need help with those too.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about today’s NYT Connections is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.
NYT Connections Today (Game #480) – Today’s Words
Today’s words from NYT Connections are…
- SKI
- PANTING
- PRUNING
- JUICE
- PUNCH
- POT
- MILK
- STRIKE
- SOCK
- BLOUSE
- EARPLUG
- WATER
- STICK
- SODA
- FERTILIZATION
- BOOKEND
NYT Connections Today (Game #480) – Hint #1 – Group Hints
What are some pointers for current NYT Connections groups?
- Yellow: Drinks
- Vegetable: Tasks with green fingers
- Blue: Two company
- Purple: Hidden creepy crawlies
Need more clues?
We’re firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four themed answers are for today’s NYT Connections puzzles…
NYT Connections Today (Game #480) – Hint #2 – Group Answers
What are the answers for today’s NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: DRINKS
- GREEN: CARE OF A PLANT
- BLUE: ITEM SOLD IN PAIR
- PURPLE: BUGS PLUS STARTING LETTER
Okay, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Connections Today (Game #480) – The Answers
The answers to today’s Connections game, game #480, are…
- YELLOW: DRINKS JUICE, MILK, PUNCH, Soft Drink
- GREEN: CARE OF A PLANT Fertilizing, pot, pruning, watering
- BLUE: ITEM SOLD IN PAIR BOOKEND, EARBUG, SKI, SOCK
- PURPLE: BUGS PLUS STARTING LETTER BLOUSE, PANTS, SMITE, STICK
- My rating: Simple
- My score: Perfect
This is actually a pretty simple Connections puzzle – although of course it’s all relative.
The key to solving it for me was to get the purple group first. This is traditionally the most difficult of the four compounds, so solving it early takes some of the pressure off. And there’s a definite psychological boost if you complete it early!
Today’s was a clever one – BUGS PLUS STARTING LETTER, for example BLOUSE (LOUSE) and SMITE (MITE). But I usually find these types of puzzles easier to solve than some others (e.g. the empty ___ type), because they don’t require as much knowledge of the subject – just the ability to think laterally about language.
With that out of the way, I was able to solve the green CARING FOR A PLANTS group, which in turn made it easier to solve DRINKS (yellow) and left me with blue by default.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s NYT Connections answers (Wednesday, October 2, game #479)
- YELLOW: PUT ON THE LINE BET, CHANCE, GAMBLE, RISK
- GREEN: USE A KITCHEN KNIFE CUBE, DICE, JULIENNE, SLICE
- BLUE: ROBERT DE NIRO FILMS CASINO, HEAT, JOKER, TAXI DRIVER
- PURPLE: NOTABLE NUMBER OF ARMS (OR LACK THEREOF) OCTOPUS, SHIVA, SLOTS MACHINE, VENUS DE MILO
What is NYT Connections?
NYT Connections is one of the New York Times’ increasingly popular word games. It challenges you to find groups of four items that have something in common, and each group has a different level of difficulty: green is easy, yellow is slightly harder, blue is often quite hard, and purple is usually very hard.
On the plus side, you technically don’t have to solve the last question, because you can answer it by a process of elimination. Plus, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you some breathing room.
It’s a bit more complicated than something like Wordle, though, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For example, beware of homophones and other word games that can obscure the answers.
It is playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
