NYT Connections today — hints and answers for Wednesday, October 16 (game #493)

2 weeks ago 7

NYT Connections homescreen on a phone, on a purple background

(Image credit: New York Times)

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 #493) - today's words

NYT Connections hints for game 493 on a purple background

Today's NYT Connections words are…

PEACE
PEBBLE
LATER
SCISSORS
ROUND
CHEERIO
BYE
FLAKE
NEXT
BRACKET
SOON
SEED
VICTORY
PUFF
TWO
EVENTUALLY

NYT Connections today (game #493) - hint #1 - group hints

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

Yellow: In the end
Green: Elements of a competition
Blue: Charm could be one
Purple: Let your fingers do the talking

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 #493) - hint #2 - group answers

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

YELLOW: AT SOME FUTURE POINT
GREEN: PARTS OF A TOURNAMENT SETUP
BLUE: BIT OF BREAKFAST CEREAL
PURPLE: WHAT THE OUTSTRETCHED INDEX AND MIDDLE FINGERS CAN REPRESENT

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

NYT Connections today (game #493) - the answers

NYT Connections answers for game 493 on a purple background

The answers to today's Connections, game #493, are…

YELLOW: AT SOME FUTURE POINT EVENTUALLY, LATER, NEXT, SOON
GREEN: PARTS OF A TOURNAMENT SETUP BRACKET, BYE, ROUND, SEED
BLUE: BIT OF BREAKFAST CEREAL CHEERIO, FLAKE, PEBBLE, PUFF
PURPLE: WHAT THE OUTSTRETCHED INDEX AND MIDDLE FINGERS CAN REPRESENT PEACE, SCISSORS, TWO, VICTORY

My rating: Moderate
My score: Perfect

I'm trying something new with my daily dose of Connections, namely attempting to solve the hardest groups first. It didn't entirely work today – not least because guessing which one the NYT will deem the toughest isn't a sure thing. But I did come up with green followed by purple and then blue, leaving the yellow group by default. Given that I'd already realized what that yellow group was, that meant that today was a rare day in which I genuinely solved all four.

Why am I doing this? No real reason, beyond my seemingly unending desire to make life more difficult for myself. That said, solving the harder ones earlier does make it a lot less likely that you'll fail (obviously). Admittedly, purple was a bit of a shot in the dark for me today. I spotted blue (BIT OF BREAKFAST CEREAL), so left out CHEERIO, FLAKE, PEBBLE and PUFF from my deliberations. And I'd already got green (PARTS OF A TOURNAMENT SETUP).

That left me with eight words: PEACE, SCISSORS, TWO, VICTORY, EVENTUALLY, LATER, NEXT, SOON. Clearly the final four of those would form a group, so I played the other four first and was pleased to see them change color. I then played the cereals group, and finally the AT SOME FUTURE POINT quartet, meaning I went at least some way towards the NYT's top score, the 'Reverse rainbow' where you go purple, blue, green, yellow. Maybe tomorrow will be the day.

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

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Tuesday, 15 October, game #492)

YELLOW: FOOTBALL POSITIONS CENTER, GUARD, QUARTERBACK, SAFETY
GREEN: CABLE CHANNELS DISCOVERY, HISTORY, NICKELODEON, OXYGEN
BLUE: FICTIONAL CLOWNS HOMEY, JOKER, PENNYWISE, RONALD
PURPLE: WHAT “D” MIGHT STAND FOR DEFENSE, DEMOCRAT, DIMENSIONAL, DRIVE

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.

Marc is TechRadar’s Global Editor in Chief, the latest in a long line of senior editorial roles he’s held in a career that started the week that Google launched (nice of them to mark the occasion). Prior to joining TR, he was UK Editor in Chief on Tom’s Guide, where he oversaw all gaming, streaming, audio, TV, entertainment, how-to and cameras coverage. He's also a former editor of the tech website Stuff and spent five years at the music magazine NME, where his duties mainly involved spoiling other people’s fun. He’s based in London, and has tested and written about phones, tablets, wearables, streaming boxes, smart home devices, Bluetooth speakers, headphones, games, TVs, cameras and pretty much every other type of gadget you can think of. An avid photographer, Marc likes nothing better than taking pictures of very small things (bugs, his daughters) or very big things (distant galaxies). He also enjoys live music, gaming, cycling, and beating Wordle (he authors the daily Wordle today page).

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