NYT Connections Answers: The New York Times’ daily puzzle, Connections, returned with its December 9 challenge, and today’s board had many players confused. As always, the goal was to sort 16 words into four hidden groups. It sounds easy, but the puzzle uses clever traps that make you think twice.
Like Wordle, Connections resets every day and has become a top pick for people who love word games that test logic and pattern spotting. If today’s puzzle felt tough, you’ll find all the hints and the full solution below.
What Is Connections & How Do You Play?
Connections is a game where you are given 16 words. Your job is to sort them into four groups of four based on one clear theme. Each word fits into only one group. The tricky part is that many words look like they could belong to more than one theme.
For example, “Hook,” “Nana,” “Peter,” and “Wendy” are all Peter Pan characters. Another example is “Action,” “Ballpark,” “Go,” and “Stick,” which all come before the word “Figure.”
You only get four mistakes. When you make the fourth wrong guess, the puzzle ends and the answers are shown to you. Each group has a colour level to show how hard it is:
- Yellow (easiest)
- Green (easy)
- Blue (medium)
- Purple (hardest)
Even though the layout looks simple, most players make mistakes because the puzzle is designed to trick you.
Hints & Full Solution To NYT Connections (December 9)
Here are today’s hints:
- Yellow: “Don’t forget about this…”
- Green: Find a visual similarity.
- Blue: Think of a colourful phenomenon in the sky.
- Purple: Focus on the first part.
Extra hints:
- The purple theme does not contain any words ending in a vowel.
- Putting verbs and animals together will help, but not finish the puzzle.
One word from each group for extra help:
- Yellow: Include
- Green: Zebra
- Blue: Leprechaun
- Purple: Toucan
Full Solution For December 9 (Puzzle #911)
- Yellow (Bear In Mind): Consider, Count, Factor, Include
- Green (Striped Animals): Clownfish, Honeybee, Tiger, Zebra
- Blue (Associated With Rainbows): Dorothy Gale, Leprechaun, Pride, Unicorn
- Purple (Beginning With Number Homophones): Fievel, Forehead, Toucan, Wonder
Today’s puzzle used a mix of animals, fairy-tale names, and word-sound tricks. The striped animals group was the easiest for many players, while the purple group with number homophones was the toughest. The rainbow group also fooled players because of the mix of characters and concepts. Overall, a fun and clever challenge for the day.
