Note : Make sure to complete today’s NYT Connections before reading further! We’ll be getting into spoilers for today’s game pretty quickly. If you need some help to complete the grid, you can find my NYT Connections hints and answers column for today via my author page .

Hey there, Connectors! Welcome to my deeper dive into today’s Connections answers. The idea behind this is to help clear things up for anyone who isn’t sure how today’s groups fit together.

If I’ve missed any red herrings or misunderstood something, let me know via email or on Discord . I don’t typically look at X or check the comments here.

I’m going to assume that you’ve already beaten today’s game. We’re going straight into spoiler territory here. So, consider this your one and only warning .

Here are today’s NYT Connections answers explained (and any red herrings I spot) for Friday, September 25:

Today’s NYT Connections Answers Explained

Connections – Yellow Group

🟨 luxe (BOUGIE, FANCY, POSH, SWANK)

These are all synonyms for “luxury” or “opulent.”

Connections – Green Group

🟩 parts of a mechanical clock (ESCAPEMENT, PENDULUM, RATCHET, SPRING)

I love clockwork mechanisms. They’re so fascinating. I can’t really explain succinctly what an ESCAPEMENT does, but this video takes care of the whole shebang for me:

And for a closer look at an ESCAPEMENT mechanism and why it’s so important (news to me!), here we go:

🟦 famous Dans (AYKROYD, LEVY, RATHER, SAVAGE)

Dan AYKROYD is perhaps best known for being the creator of Ghostbusters, as well as the Coneheads. He also founded the The Blues Brothers along with John Belushi.

Dan LEVY is the co-creator (along with his farther Eugene Levy) and co-star of Schitt’s Creek .

Dan RATHER is a journalist and former anchor of CBS Evening News .

Dan SAVAGE is a journalist, author, activist and relationship and sex advice columnist.

Connections – Purple Group

🟪 taxonomic ranks plus a letter (BORDER, CLASSY, FOAMILY, GENIUS)

  • BORDER > order
  • CLASSY > class
  • FOAMILY > family
  • GENIUS > genus

All are used within biological taxonomy to classify organisms. As humans, our class is mammalia (since we’re mammals) and we belong to the order of primates. Our family is hominidae and our genus is homo.

Connections – Red Herrings

I didn’t see any red herrings today. Let me know if you did!

If you’d like to chat about today’s game of Connections and just about anything else with me and a very lovely group of people, you can do just that in our Discord community . We’d love for you to hang out with us.

I’ll be back with another set of NYT Connections hints and answers tomorrow, as well as another edition of this one, all going well. You’ll be able to find both of those on my Forbes author page when the time comes (following me there helps me out too!). As for the weekend editions of my NYT Connections hints and answers column, I’m currently doing that via my newsletter, Pastimes .