Today’s NYT Connections Answers Explained

Connections – Yellow Group

🟨 glimmer (FLICKER, HINT, SUGGESTION, WHIFF)

These all refer to something faint. A glimmer of light, hope, an idea etc

Connections – Green Group

🟩 involuntary actions (BLINK, HICCUP, SHIVER, SNEEZE)

The category title takes care of this one!

Connections – Blue Group

🟦 kinds of knots (BEND, BOWLINE, HITCH, SHEEPSHANK)

I am terrible with knots but I really should know how to tie some basic ones. I think we’re going to need some instructional YouTube videos for how to tie these.

There are lots of different types of BEND knot. It’s used to attach two lengths of rope (or two bits of the same rope) together. Here’s how to tie a zeppelin bend knot:

You’d use a BOWLINE to create a loop at the end of a rope:

You might use a HITCH knot to tie a rope to an object (as in a “trailer hitch”):

A SHEEPSHANK knot is used to reduce slack or otherwise make a rope shorter. I think this one’s strangely pleasing to the eye:

Connections – Purple Group

🟪 starting with units in competitions (GAMELAN, MATCHSTICK, POINTER, SETBACK)

These refer to:

• GAMELAN > game
• MATCHSTICK > match
• POINTER > point
• SETBACK > set

Tennis is the first thing that came to mind when I realized what this category was.

Connections – Red Herrings

SETBACK, HICCUP, HITCH and WHIFF can all refer to a mistake.

I also almost got tripped up by POINTER, which aligns with HINT. But it didn’t quite make sense with the other yellows.

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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.