NYT Connections today — hints and answers for Sunday, October 27 (game #504)

Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need clues.

What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Wordle hints and answers, Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

Your Connections expert

NYT Connections today (game #504) - today's words

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• FRESH
• PRINCE
• BEL
• AIR
• QUALITY
• BAR
• CUTE
• MERMAID
• LUX
• WISE
• TRAMP
• MOOD
• FEELING
• SMART
• MOLE
• RASCALS

NYT Connections today (game #504) - hint #1 - group hints

What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?

• Yellow: Giving it some attitude
• Green: Atmosphere
• Blue: Quantities
• Purple: [small] blank

Need more clues?

We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…

NYT Connections today (game #504) - hint #2 - group answers

What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: SASSY
• GREEN: AMBIENCE
• BLUE: UNITS
• PURPLE: THE LITTLE ___

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Connections today (game #504) - the answers

The answers to today's Connections, game #504, are…

• YELLOW: SASSY CUTE, FRESH, SMART, WISE
• GREEN: AMBIENCE AIR, FEELING, MOOD, QUALITY
• BLUE: UNITS BAR, BEL, LUX, MOLE
• PURPLE: THE LITTLE ___ MERMAID, PRINCE, RASCALS, TRAMP

• My rating: Moderate
• My score: 1 hint

This is a reasonably tricky Connections puzzle, and one that has nothing to do with Will Smith, despite the first four words in the grid reading FRESH PRINCE BEL AIR. Of course the first thing I do every time I play is to use the shuffle function in order to remove any NYT misdirection that might be in there. I'm not sure if it works, because seeing those four words in different places might well suggestion a connection to me – so I have to be careful to look at the board both before and after I shuffle. I take it all too seriously, yes,

Surprisingly, I solved purple first today; the blank connection there, of LITTLE (TRAMP, PRINCE, MERMAID, RASCALS) was fairly obvious, whereas the blue group of BAR, BEL, LUX and MOLE was much more difficult. Yellow and green were both pretty tricky for the supposedly easiest groups, too, so it took me a while to get all of the answers.

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Saturday, 26 October, game #503)

• YELLOW: FLUSTER FAZE, RATTLE, RUFFLE, THROW
• GREEN: SERIES OF MESSAGES CHAIN, CHAT, CONVERSATION, THREAD
• BLUE: PLACES TO LIE/SIT THAT MOVE CRADLE, HAMMOCK, ROCKER, SWING
• PURPLE: CYLINDER-SHAPED THINGS CAN, ROLLER, SILO, SPOOL

What is NYT Connections?

NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.

On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.

It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.

It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.