If you’re looking for the September 29 Connections hints and answers, we’ve got you covered right here:

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

I am not great with email. I receive more emails in a day than I can possibly respond to and still get through everything else I need to. I have to be pretty judicious with quickly deleting or archiving emails. It also often takes me a few days to get back to non-urgent emails.

I’m aware there are certain… technological tools… that claim to make it easier to manage our inboxes. There’s no way I could possibly trust those with access to my emails, though, especially when I’m often dealing with news embargoes or confidential information.

I do read all the emails that hit my inbox, but not necessarily those that are filtered to various folders (it’s been years since I read one that mentioned NFTs, for instance). I especially appreciate when you fine folks get in touch with me. I’m sorry that I don’t always respond promptly!

Before we start, we’ve got a lovely community on Discord , where we chat about Connections , the rest of the NYT games and all kinds of things. You’re more than welcome to join us!

Also, my weekend editions of this column are available over on my newsletter, Pastimes . I sometimes write about other things that are on my mind there as well.

Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Wednesday, September 30 are coming right up. Let’s get rolling!

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 green, blue 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

After today’s Connections word list, I’ll give you a hint for each category. After that, I’ll reveal one word that goes into each group. Then I’ll reveal the categories, followed by the full answers.

  • TAMBOURINE
  • SEPTUM
  • DECENT
  • BOND
  • MARTINI
  • OPTION
  • NOVELTY
  • CASINO
  • SPRAY PAINT
  • OCTOPUSSY
  • DONNIE BRASCO
  • FUTURE
  • BUGSY
  • ETCH A SKETCH
  • STOCK
  • SCARFACE

Today’s NYT Connections Hints

The hints for today’s Connections categories are:

  • 🟨 Yellow group — unlike while playing tennis, you’ll hope for a good return with these
  • 🟩 Green group — [ YouTube link ]
  • 🟦 Blue group — among the usual suspects, you might find some wise guys
  • 🟪 Purple group — like apron and jangle

One Answer For Each NYT Connections Group

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

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

  • 🟨 Yellow group — STOCK
  • 🟩 Green group — TAMBOURINE
  • 🟦 Blue group — CASINO
  • 🟪 Purple group — SEPTUM

Today’s NYT Connections Categories

Today’s Connections groups are...

  • 🟨 Yellow group — securities
  • 🟩 Green group — things that are shaken (not stirred)
  • 🟦 Blue group — gangster movies
  • 🟪 Purple group — starting with month abbreviations

Today’s NYT Connections Answer

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...

  • 🟨 Yellow group — securities (BOND, FUTURE, OPTION, STOCK)
  • 🟩 Green group — things that are shaken (not stirred) (ETCH A SKETCH, MARTINI, SPRAY PAINT, TAMBOURINE)
  • 🟦 Blue group — gangster movies (BUGSY, CASINO, DONNIE BRASCO, SCARFACE)
  • 🟪 Purple group — starting with month abbreviations (DECENT, NOVELTY, OCTOPUSSY, SEPTUM)

I dodged the James Bond red herring to quickly get the yellows, then DONNIE BRASCO made the blues clear.

OCTOPUSSY surely had to have some wordplay going on, so I broke it down into components. As I looked around, I saw some other words that started with abbreviations of months. Some trial and error got me to the purples.

That left the greens, and I smiled once I realized what the category had to be. Put 577 up on the streak scoreboard for me.

How did you get on this time? 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 .

Be sure to check my blog for hints and the answer for tomorrow’s game of Connections if you need them.

P.S. Today’s recommendation is going to have to be a Bond theme! Just as I wrote those words, “Diamonds Are Forever” by Shirley Bassey popped into my head, so let’s go with that. A top-five Bond theme for me:

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. I’d really appreciate that as it helps me out. If you share this column with others who play Connections, that would be lovely too. You can also read my weekend editions of this column and more of my writing at my newsletter, Pastimes .