NYT Connections today — hints and answers for Wednesday, October 9 (game #486)

3 weeks ago 11

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 #486) - today's words

NYT Connections hints for game 486 on a purple background

Today's NYT Connections words are…

SPIN
JACKKNIFE
BUBBLES
PROGRESS
BUTTERCUP
FIZZ
BLOSSOM
PITCHFORK
MOJO
MATURE
FOAM
BOILERPLATE
WITHERSPOON
BILLBOARD
DEVELOP
FROTH

NYT Connections today (game #486) - hint #1 - group hints

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

Yellow: As with Champagne, for instance
Green: Get older or better
Blue: Rolling Stone is another
Purple: SUPERBOWL could be one more

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 #486) - hint #2 - group answers

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

YELLOW: EFFERVESCENCE
GREEN: BURGEON
BLUE: MUSIC PUBLICATIONS
PURPLE: ENDING WITH TABLEWARE

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

NYT Connections today (game #486) - the answers

NYT Connections answers for game 486 on a purple background

The answers to today's Connections, game #486, are…

YELLOW: EFFERVESCENCE BUBBLES, FIZZ, FOAM, FROTH
GREEN: BURGEON BLOSSOM, DEVELOP, MATURE, PROGRESS
BLUE: MUSIC PUBLICATIONS BILLBOARD, MOJO, PITCHFORK, SPIN
PURPLE: ENDING WITH TABLEWARE BOILERPLATE, BUTTERCUP, JACKKNIFE, WITHERSPOON

My rating: Moderate
My score: 2 mistakes

This is not too bad, as Connections puzzles go, but it does contain some classic NYT misdirection that caused me to lose two guesses. That all concerned the purple group, the most difficult one of the four as is usually the case. It’s also usually the most interesting and cryptic of the quartet, and today was no exception; what you had to do here was find four words that all contained an item of TABLEWARE at the end. The trouble was, there were potentially five of them: BOILERPLATE, BUTTERCUP, JACKKNIFE and WITHERSPOON, which ended up being the correct answers, plus PITCHFORK.

I guessed a couple of combinations and got them wrong, then rather than risk falling at the first hurdle, decided to instead look elsewhere and return to that group. With the rather easy yellow and green groups out of the way I was left with a much easier task, realizing that PITCHFORK went with BILLBOARD, MOJO and SPIN to make MUSIC PUBLICATIONS, and thus confirming what the purple group was too.

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

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Tuesday, 8 October, game #485)

YELLOW: HALLOWEEN SYMBOLS BAT, PUMPKIN, SPIDER, WITCH
GREEN: PROHIBIT BAN, BLOCK, DENY, FORBID
BLUE: FOUND ON SHEET MUSIC ACCIDENTAL, NOTE, REST, STAFF
PURPLE: CANDY ___ APPLE, BAR, CANE, CORN

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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