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 Thursday:

Hey there, Connectors! The weekend is almost upon us, so let’s make sure you get there with your Connections streak in one piece.

Today marks game 1,111 of Connections . Game 2,222 should be on July 11, 2029, in case you were wondering. I don’t really want to talk about that, though. I’m too bummed about Scotland’s showing at the men’s World Cup so far.

Despite a woeful performance against Brazil on Wednesday night, there’s still a chance that Scotland make it through to the next round. It all depends on other results from the final round of group stage games. In all honesty, we don’t really deserve it. We beat Haiti with a deflected goal when they were the better team, and Morocco and Brazil both had the measure of us.

I’ll say this, though. At this point, given how bad we’ve been, the funniest possible outcome would be for Scotland to win the World Cup. Go on, make me laugh.

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.

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Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase

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 Friday, June 29 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.

  • TANG
  • CHIP
  • BOARD
  • PINKY
  • DALE
  • REDO
  • SPLINTER
  • NUT
  • HOLLOW
  • TREE
  • GORGE
  • BRONZER
  • CRACKER
  • DELL
  • LOG
  • PRETZEL

Today’s NYT Connections Hints

And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:

  • 🟨 Yellow group — these perhaps won't go quietly into the night... or your mouth
  • 🟩 Green group — how much would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck it?
  • 🟦 Blue group — a kind of Great Depression most of us would probably be okay with
  • 🟪 Purple group — as at sunrise or sunset, there's more shade than usual

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 — NUT
  • 🟩 Green group — BOARD
  • 🟦 Blue group — DALE
  • 🟪 Purple group — TANG

Today’s NYT Connections Categories

Today’s Connections groups are...

  • 🟨 Yellow group — crunchy snack item
  • 🟩 Green group — various amounts of wood
  • 🟦 Blue group — areas of low ground
  • 🟪 Purple group — colors plus a letter

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...

The cartoon rodent red herring tripped me up immediately. Rats! At least I figured out that meant CHIP had to go with the yellows and SPLINTER had to go with the greens.

From there, I felt the blues were straightforward enough to spot, leaving the purples for the win. BRONZER and PINKY made that category not too difficult to figure out. But for that irresistible red herring, I would have had a regular rainbow to extend my streak to 481 wins.

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

Gosh, there isn't much to spell out there, thanks to the category title, so I think I'll have to skip the Answers Explained column again today.

I will say that the red herring I saw was CHIP, DALE (as in the chipmunks Chip 'n' Dale), PINKY (a mouse in Pinky and the Brain ) and SPLINTER (a mutant rat from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ).

That is it for my current weekday run of Connections hints and answers columns here. I’ll be back with you for more shenanigans on Monday. In the meantime, you can read my weekend editions of this column at my newsletter, Pastimes .

P.S. I really love mashups when they’re done well, and this is a really well-done mashup. It might, in fact, be the ultimate mashup.

If you ever wanted to hear a boatload of artists injected into KC and the Sunshine Band’s "That’s The Way I Like It" (albeit with some swears), this is the only mashup you’ll ever need. It’s so much fun, and a great way to kick off the weekend:

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

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