NYT Connections Answers: The New York Times’ daily word puzzle, Connections, is back for Thursday, 25 December, and today’s board was quietly tricky. At first glance, the words looked neat and harmless, but once you started grouping them, the confusion kicked in. As usual, players had to sort 16 words into four hidden groups, with each group sharing a clear theme.
Like Wordle, Connections resets every day and keeps players coming back with its mix of logic, word knowledge, and clever traps. If you felt stuck or second-guessed your choices today, here’s a full and simple breakdown of the puzzle.
What Is Connections & How Do You Play?
Connections is a daily word game where your goal is to find four groups of four related words. You are shown 16 words at once, and every word belongs to only one correct group. The challenge comes from the fact that many words seem like they fit together, even when they don’t. These misleading overlaps are meant to slow you down.
For example, words like “Hook,” “Nana,” “Peter,” and “Wendy” all belong together because they are Peter Pan characters. In another case, words such as “Action,” “Ballpark,” “Go,” and “Stick” all come before the word “Figure.”
You get only four wrong guesses in total. On the fourth mistake, the game ends and the correct answers are shown. Each group also comes with a colour that shows how hard it is to spot:
- Yellow (easiest)
- Green (easy)
- Blue (medium)
- Purple (hardest)
You can shuffle the board if you want a fresh look, and once finished, you can share your results just like Wordle.
Hints & Full Solution To NYT Connections (December 25)
Here are today’s official hints:
- Yellow: Think of “over the top”.
- Green: “To create.”
- Blue: Does it have a stem?
- Purple: They’re used to train your ears.
Extra hints:
- Every group has a word starting with “M”.
- “Purple” and “Cherry” are not in the same group.
One word from each group to help you further:
- Yellow: Flowery
- Green: Make Up
- Blue: Wine Glass
- Purple: Retire
Full Solution For Thursday, 25 December
- Yellow (Ornate): Excessive, Flowery, Melodramatic, Purple
- Green (Create): Coin, Hatch, Fashion, Make Up
- Blue (Things With Stems): Cherry, Flower, Musical Note, Wine Glass
- Purple (Comprised Of Solfege – Do-re-mi): Laredo, Mire, Retire, Solti
Today’s puzzle rewarded careful thinking. Words like “flowery” and “melodramatic” made the ornate theme clearer, while the creative group came together once “make up” and “fashion” were seen as actions.
The stems group was more visual, and the solfege set was the trickiest, especially if music theory isn’t your thing. A smart and satisfying holiday puzzle overall.


