Looking for a different day?
A new NEW Connections puzzle pops up at midnight every day for your time zone – meaning some people are always playing “today’s game” while others are playing “yesterday’s”. If you’re looking for Thursday’s puzzle instead then click here: NEW Connections Hints and Answers for Thursday, March 5 (Game #998).
Good morning! Let’s play Connections, the NYT’s clever word game that challenges you to group answers into different categories. It can be difficult, so read on if you need Connections tips.
SPOILER ALERT: Today’s NYT Connections information is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.
NEW Connections today (game #999) – word of the day
Today’s NEW Connections word is…
- SPONGE
- MARBLE
- SHARP
- WILD
- POUND
- LAYER
- FACULTY
- CURTAIN
- HASH
- PARASITE
- BLANKET
- FEELING
- LEECH
- CAPE
- NUMBER
- MOOCH
NEW Connections today (game #999) – tip #1 – group tip
What are some clues for today’s NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: Take without giving
- GREEN: Keep it hidden
- BLUE: Meanings for a particular symbol
- PURPLE: Brain power, but missing an element
Need more clues?
We’re firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today’s NYT Connections puzzles…
NEW Connections today (game #999) – tip #2 – group answer
What are the answers for today’s NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: FREELOADER
- GREEN: HIDING COVER
- BLUE: WAYS TO REFER TO #
- PURPLE: WORD FOR LUCIDITY IN SINGULAR
Okay, the answers are below, so DON’T SCROLL IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NEW Connections today (game #999) – the answers
The answers to today’s Connections, game #999, are…
- YELLOW: FREELOADER LECH, MOOCH, PARASITE, FUNGUS
- GREEN: COVERAGE OF COVERAGE CARPET, COAT, CURTAIN, LAYER
- BLUE: WAYS TO REFER TO # HASH, NUMBER, POUND, SHARP
- PURPLE: WORD FOR LUCIDITY, SINGULAR FACULTY, MARBLE, SENSE, WILD
- My rating: Hard
- My score: 1 error
What do SPONGE, LAYER, POUND and MARBLE suggest to you? Cakes, of course — which is exactly what the NYT would have you think by placing them all together in the top left corner of the board today. What did I do? Ignored them, of course, because there was no way I was falling in to trap.
Instead, I decided that SPONGE could go well with LEECH, PARASITE and MOOCH to make a FREELOADER group – and indeed they did. It was yellow finished, and the green TIRE TIRE wasn’t much harder.
As always, blue and purple required a little more thought. I discovered that FACULTY, SENSE and WIT were all associated with smart thinking, but tried both SHARP and NUMBER and got ‘one away’; I’m not really sure what I was doing with the latter, but only smart people understand numbers, right?
I had only three words to choose from now: MARBLE, HASH, and POUND, and after staring at them for a few minutes it slowly dawned on me that the other words were all singular, and therefore MARBLE would be the final piece of the puzzle. Not a good example of my own mental abilities, to be honest.
By the way, I can’t help but notice that the blue # group was still harder than purple. I’m very glad I didn’t have to fix it.
Yesterday’s NEW Connections Answer (Thursday, March 5, Game #998)
- YELLOW: HARDWARE BOLTS, NUT, SCREW, WASHER
- GREEN: PLACES WHERE IDEAS ARE DEVELOPED INCUBATOR, LAB, SANDBOX, TEST BED
- BLUE: GO back and forth CHANGE, CHANGE, CHANGE
- PURPLE: WHAT “SUB” MEAN TO BELOW, HERO, REPLACEMENT, SUBMARINE
What is NYT Connections?
NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games created by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four elements that share something in common, and each group has a different degree of difficulty: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough, and purple usually very difficult.
On the plus side, you technically don’t need to solve the last one, as you’ll be able to answer it by a process of elimination. Also, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.
It’s a bit more involved than something like Wordle, though, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to let you beat yourself up with tricks. For example, watch out for homophones and other puns that can hide the answers.
It can be played for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
