Each day’s game of NYT Connections goes live at midnight local time. Before today’s NYT Connections hints, here’s what you missed on Tuesday:

It’s Wednesday, and you know what that means: it’s time for another round of Connections !

I’ve got an exciting few days ahead. First, I’m taking my partner with me to see my favorite band in the world. It’ll be my second time seeing them live and her first-ever metal show. She’s looking forward to it – I wouldn’t take her to an event I don’t think she’d enjoy!

After that, one of at least two punk festivals I’ll be attending this year takes place in Montreal this weekend. There are some free outdoor stages, and the legendary Buzzcocks – of “Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve)” fame – will be playing. I opted not to go to the festival last year after bad weather left the outdoor stage a muddy mess, so here’s hoping the weather holds up this time.

A little while after that, at a venue a few blocks away, Wheatus will be playing a late-night set. I imagine it would be fun to see them live and sing along to “Teenage Dirtbag,” but I’m dithering over whether I’d want to pay $65 for the privilege.

Before we start, I want to highlight the rad community we have on Discord , where we chat about Connections , the rest of the NYT games and all kinds of other stuff. It’s a lovely group of folks. You’re more than welcome to join us.

Also, my weekend editions of this column are available over on my newsletter, Pastimes . If you enjoy the intros and recommendations in my Connections columns, I publish longer pieces along similar lines on Pastimes as well. I think you’d dig them.

Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Wednesday, May 13 are coming right up. Let’s get rolling!

NYT Connections – How To Play

Connections is a free New York Times daily word game that you can play on the NYT ’s website or Games app. If you have an NYT All Access or Games subscription, you can access the Connections archive, which includes every previous game.

Connections presents you with a grid of 16 words (sometimes phrases, symbols or numbers). The aim is to arrange them into four groups of four. You don’t know how they hit together or what the category for each group is: that’s what you have to figure out.

There’s only one correct solution and there are often red herrings. You can guess incorrectly three times. A fourth wrong guess, and it’s game over.

Each group is color coded. The yellow group is usually the easiest to deduce, followed by blue, green and purple. Often, the yellow and green groups have synonyms, the blues have cultural references and the purples have some kind of wordplay involved. But this is not a hard and fast rule. Be ready for curveballs – part of the fun of Connections is in how the NYT shakes things up to keep you on your toes.

As with Wordle and similar games, it’s easy to share results with your friends using an emoji-based grid. The game tracks your progress too.

Many players take pride in having long win streaks or getting a reverse rainbow – correctly guessing the purple, blue, green and yellow groups in that order with no mistakes. That adds an extra little challenge.

Today’s NYT Connections Word List

Scroll slowly! I’ll first give you a list of today’s words, then a hint for each category. After that, I’ll reveal one word that goes into each group. Then I’ll tell you the category names, followed by the full answers.

  • BEAN
  • CROP
  • GRINDER
  • DONUT
  • GROUNDS
  • ADJUST
  • ROLL
  • FILTERS
  • SUB
  • CAUSE
  • BELLY
  • BASIS
  • HERO
  • ARGUMENT
  • MARKUP
  • HOAGIE

Today’s NYT Connections Hints

And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:

  • 🟨 Yellow group — appropriately enough, you might feel stuffed after one of these
  • 🟩 Green group — starting point
  • 🟦 Blue group — touch-up tools
  • 🟪 Purple group — like fungus, plant and baby

NYT Connections – One Answer Per Group

Be warned: we’re starting to get into spoiler territory.

Let’s take a look at one answer for each group.

  • 🟨 Yellow group — HERO
  • 🟩 Green group — CAUSE
  • 🟦 Blue group — MARKUP
  • 🟪 Purple group — BELLY

Today’s NYT Connections Categories

Today’s Connections groups are...

  • 🟨 Yellow group — long sandwich
  • 🟩 Green group — pretext
  • 🟦 Blue group — smartphone photo editing options
  • 🟪 Purple group — jelly _____

Today’s NYT Connections Answers

Spoiler alert! Don’t scroll any further down the page until you’re ready to find out today’s Connections answers.

This is your last chance to look away.

This is your final warning!

Today’s Connections answers are...

HOAGIE, SUB and HERO led me to believe that there'd be a group of sandwich-related words. I figured that ROLL would be the fourth word. That guess put me one away from a group. I thought it best to leave those alone for a bit.

ARGUMENT and BASIS were my lead-ins to the greens. That eliminated FILTERS and GROUNDS from contention from a group of coffee-related words along with GRINDER and BEAN. Good thing, too, because that would have been my next idea.

DONUT and BELLY landed close to each other, which made me think of "jelly," so I was able to secure the purples. CROP and ADJUST then were side-by-side, so I could get the blues.

I guess the yellows were defaults for me today? I had the right idea, but I have never, not once, heard of a GRINDER sandwich. (Or maybe I did and totally forgot about it.)

In any case, my streak is up to 437 wins in a row.

How did you get on today? Here's my grid:

Want to know more about how everything fits together? Let’s explore today’s game in more depth in my NYT Connections Answers Explained column. You can check that out by visiting my author page .

That’s all there is to it for today’s Connections clues and answers. Be sure to check my blog tomorrow for hints and the solution for Thursday’s game if you need them.

P.S. Carly Rae Jepsen can do no wrong. She’s a Canadian icon. So I was delighted to see this song pop up in my YouTube recommendations recently. “Disco Darling” seems to be an older track that was unreleased until a few weeks ago. It’s a real solid piece of mid-tempo pop:

Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Be kind to yourself and each other! Call someone you love!

Please follow my blog for more NYT Connections hints and help with other word games, and even some video game news, insights and analysis. It helps me out a lot! Sharing this column with other people who play Connections would be appreciated too. You can also read my weekend editions of this column at my newsletter, Pastimes .