Connections today: Quick menu
Looking for today’s Connections answers? The Connections answers on December 21 for puzzle #193 continue this week’s trend toward the slightly more challenging end of the spectrum, with the Connections Companion rating this puzzle’s difficulty at 3 out of 5.
Every day, we update this article with Connections hints and tips to help you find all 4 of today’s answers. And if the hints aren’t enough, you’ll find all 4 answers below, with the category titles and the correlating words. Plus, we’re including a reflection on yesterday’s puzzle, #192, in case you’re reading this in a different time zone.
Spoilers lie ahead for Connections #193. Only read on if you want to know today’s Connections answers.
Today’s Connections answer — hints to help you solve it
Unlike our guide to today’s Wordle answer, where we recommend the best Wordle start words as your strategy, solving Connections relies on identifying connecting categories among 16 words. Each category’s difficulty level is represented by a color; yellow is the easiest grouping, and purple is the most challenging. Once you’ve made 4 mistakes in your guesses, the answers will be revealed, so hints can be helpful.
If you need hints to solve the groupings, then here are the themes of each, based on the order of difficulty:
- 🟨 Yellow: This category is a chore
- 🟩 Green: Point in the right direction
- 🟦 Blue: “I” can be many things
- 🟪 Purple: A word between two hills
These hints should get you at least some of the way towards finding today’s Connections answers. If not, then you can read on for bigger clues; or, if you just want to know the answer, then scroll down further.
Alright then, here’s a larger hint: One of the deceptions in Connections puzzle #193 may have you looking for a copy of the periodic table. You’ll need to look at these elements in another context to find the categories they actually belong to.
Today’s Connections answers
So, what are today’s Connections answers for game #193?
Drumroll, please…
- 🟨 Seen in a laundry room: Dryer, Hamper, Iron, Washer
- 🟩 Shepherd: Direct, Guide, Lead, Steer
- 🟦 What “I” might mean: Iodine, Iota, Myself, One
- 🟪 _____ valley: Death, Hidden, Silicon, Uncanny
I always like to start my game by finding any obvious deceptions — there’s nothing worse than wasting a mistake right at the very start. However, in today’s game, Direct and Guide caught my eye first. I half expected that to be a dead end, so was pleasantly surprised to find Lead and Steer, giving me the green shepherd category.
Dryer and Hamper were the next obvious pairing to jump out at me, and I figured the theme must be related to laundry. Iron and Washer were an obvious fit, and saw me lock in the yellow “seen in a laundry room” category with ease.
Knowing how common it is to find a category based on words that come before or after a single word, I next honed in on Death and Silicon as they are both place names ending in valley. I couldn’t see how any of the other words fit this group right away, so I was concerned it might be a decoy.
However, I had no other ideas, so decided to try Death, Silicone, Hidden, and Iodine. The game told me I was one away, so I switched Iodine for Uncanny and found I had completed the purple ____ valley category.
This left me with Iodine, Iota, Myself, and One — try as I might, I couldn’t figure out the connection, so selected them all, hit submit, and let the game explain its logic behind the remaining blue category. It turns out they’re all words you might associate with the letter “I.” I clearly need to brush up on the Greek alphabet and the periodic table!
Yesterday’s Connections answers
Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Connections answers for game #192, which had a difficulty rating of 2.4 out of 5, according to the Connections Companion.
After the more difficult puzzles this week, Connections 192 was a breath of fresh air. Scanning the word grid, I started picking out words like Call, Dial, and Ring. I wondered if this was too obvious, but Buzz seemed like a solid fourth and final word for this phone-related group. Sure enough, that proved correct and locked in the yellow contact via phone category.
Pinky and Index were displayed side by side on my grid, so I started to look for other words linked to fingers. I decided this was a deception, but this train of thought helped me find the next category.
Little would have fit my _______ finger group, but it also went well with Slight and Dinky. I initially read Minute as a measurement of time, but its use here was clearly in relation to something that is small in size. I submitted and confirmed the blue wee category.
- 🟨 Contact via phone: Buzz, Call, Dial, Ring
- 🟩 Book sections: Appendix, Chapter, Index, Preface
- 🟦 Wee: Dinky, Little, Minute, Slight
- 🟪 Cartoon mice: Itchy, Jerry, Pinky, Speedy
The remaining words started to fall into two obvious groups. While I wasn’t entirely sure where I knew them from, I recognized Itchy, Jerry, Pinky, and Speedy as cartoon character names. This won me the purple cartoon mice category — I’m pleased to have got this without them being the only words left for a change!
I spotted the literary theme of the final four words at the same time as the previous category, and sure enough, Appendix, Chapter, Index, and Preface made up the green book sections category.
Connections tips — how to win Connections
Connections relies more on your deductive skills and general knowledge, and you also don’t get to know which word (or words) don’t belong in your guessed groupings. Only if you’ve included one incorrect word, will the game tell you so.
To win Connections, you’ll want to take your time looking at all 16 words before making your first guess. Do any words have more than pronunciation? Do any of the words mean more than one thing? Are any of the words part of larger phrases?
Often times, the answer that jumps out at your first will intentionally mislead you. That’s why identifying any possible 5-word categories is a good strategy to start. Bookmark them and come back to them after you’ve solved another category or two, and it should help you figure out which of the 5 words belongs in a different category.
Most Connections categories aren’t incredibly obvious. It’s common for the editor to use phrases, puns and other tricky topics that will require you to think. If you’re stuck on the categories, cycle through each word in the grid and brainstorm possible categories that word fits into, even if you don’t see other related words in the puzzle.
What is NYT Connections?
Connections is a category matching game, launched as a beta experience on June 12, 2023. It then joined the NYT Games app (iOS, Android) officially on August 28, 2023. This app is how people can play the daily New York Times Crossword and ultra-viral game Wordle; however, you need a paid subscription for crossword access, while Wordle and Connections are free to play.
In Connections, you’re presented with 16 words and need to group them into 4, 4-word categories. There are often words intended to mislead you, or seemingly 5-word categories. Your goal is to group the words properly without exceeding 4 guesses. If you can’t solve it within 4 guesses, you’ve failed, and the answers will be revealed.
What time does the Connections puzzle come out?
The NYT Connections puzzle comes out daily. The game is refreshed at your device’s midnight local time.
Where to play Connections
You can play Connections on the New York Times Game App, available for iOS/iPadOS and Android. If you’re on a computer or your device’s browser, you can access NYT Connections online here.