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Today's Connections: Sports Edition has a tricky but fun purple category. If you're interested in words and how they develop over time, you might appreciate this group. If you're struggling with today's puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn't appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic's own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today's Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today's Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Mosey on down.

Green group hint: Area you can squeeze through.

Blue group hint: Fire it in there!

Purple group hint: Two words, blended.

Answers for today's Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Move at a slow pace.

Green group: Room to run.

Blue group: Baseball pitches, with "ball."

Purple group: Portmanteaus.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today's Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today's Connections

The theme is move at a slow pace. The four answers are amble, jog, lope and trot.

The green words in today's Connections

The theme is room to run. The four answers are gap, hole, opening and space.

The blue words in today's Connections

The theme is baseball pitches, with "ball." The four answers are curve, fast, fork and knuckle.

The purple words in today's Connections

The theme is portmanteaus. The four answers are athleisure, motocross, parasailing and slurve. (Slurve is a baseball pitch that's a hybrid of a slider and a curveball.)

Toughest Connections: Sports Edition categories

The Connections: Sports Edition puzzle can be tough, but it really depends on which sports you know the most about. My husband aces anything having to do with Formula 1, my best friend is a hockey buff, and I can answer any question about Minnesota teams.

That said, it's hard to pick the toughest Connections categories, but here are some I found exceptionally mind-blowing.

#1: Serie A Clubs. Answers: Atalanta, Juventus, Lazio, Roma.

#2: WNBA MVPs. Answers: Catchings, Delle Donne, Fowles and Stewart.

#3: Premier League team nicknames. Answers: Bees, Cherries, Foxes and Hammers.

#4: Homophones of NBA player names. Answers: Barns, Connect, Heart and Hero.