NYT Connections Today – Hints and Answers for Wednesday, October 9 (Game #486)
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 #486) – Today’s Words
Today’s words from NYT Connections are…
- PLAY
- JASMES
- BUBBLES
- PROGRESS
- BUTTERCUP
- FIZZ
- BLOSSOM
- PITCHFORK
- MOJO
- ADULT
- FOAM
- HOB
- WITH SPOON
- BILLBOARD
- TO DEVELOP
- FOAM
NYT Connections Today (Game #486) – Hint #1 – Group Hints
What are some pointers for today’s NYT Connections groups?
- Yellow: Like with champagne, for example
- Vegetable: Getting older or better
- Blue: Rolling Stone is another
- Purple: SUPERBOWL could be another one
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 #486) – Hint #2 – Group Answers
What are the answers for today’s NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: BRUISING
- GREEN: BURGEON
- BLUE: MUSIC PUBLICATIONS
- PURPLE: END WITH CABLEWARE
Okay, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Connections Today (Game #486) – The Answers
The answers to today’s Connections game, game #486, are…
- YELLOW: BRUISING BUBBLES, BUBBLES, FOAM, FOAM
- GREEN: BURGEON FLOWERING, DEVELOPMENT, RIPE, PROGRESS
- BLUE: MUSIC PUBLICATIONS BILLBOARD, MOJO, PITCHFORK, SPIN
- PURPLE: END WITH CABLEWARE HOB, BUTTER CUP, JACK KNIFE, WITH SPOON
- My rating: Moderate
- My score: 2 mistakes
This isn’t too bad, as Connections puzzles go, but it does contain some classic NYT deceptions that made me double guess. This all concerned the purple group, as usual the most difficult of the four. It’s also usually the most interesting and cryptic of the quartet, and today was no exception; what you had to do here was find four words that all contained an item of TABLEWARE at the end. The problem was that there were potentially five: HOB, BUTTER CUP, JACK KNIFE, and WITHERSPOON, which ended up being the correct answers, plus PITCH FORK.
I guessed a few combinations and got them wrong, and rather than risk falling at the first hurdle, I instead decided to look elsewhere and return to that group. With the rather easy yellow and green groups out of the way, a much easier task remained, as I realized that PITCHFORK was going with BILLBOARD, MOJO and SPIN to create MUSIC PUBLICATIONS, thus confirming whatever the purple group was.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s NYT Connections answers (Tuesday, October 8, game #485)
- YELLOW: HALLOWEEN SYMBOLS BAT, PUMPKIN, SPIDER, WITCH
- GREEN: PROHIBITED PROHIBITED, BLOCKED, DENIAL, PROHIBITED
- BLUE: FOUND ON SHEET MUSIC ACCIDENTAL, NOTE, REST, STAFF
- PURPLE: CANDY ___ APPLE, BAR, CANE, CORN
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.
