If you’re looking for the Connections answer for Tuesday, October 10, 2023, read on—I’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solutions to all four categories. Beware, there are spoilers below for October 10, NYT Connections #121! Read on if you want some hints (and then the answer) to today’s Connections game.
If you want an easy way to come back to our Connections hints every day, bookmark this page. You can also find our past hints there as well, in case you want to know what you missed in a previous puzzle.
Below, I’ll give you some oblique hints at today’s Connections answers. And further down the page, I’ll reveal the themes and the answers. Scroll slowly and take just the hints you need!
Does today’s Connections game require any special knowledge?
Sports fans have an edge here; there are some team names on the board.
There’s also a word here that has a little-known meaning: a GERM is the beginning of something, as in the GERM of an idea. Along the same lines, wheat GERM is the part of a wheat seed that contains the teeny tiny beginnings of a new wheat plant. (The rest of the seed is a supply of carbohydrate to fuel it on its journey; that’s the part we like to eat, too.)
Hints for the themes in today’s Connections puzzle
Here are some spoiler-free hints for the groupings in today’s Connections:
Yellow category - Start here.
Green category - Do some reading.
Blue category - Watch the game.
Purple category - It’s...electric?
Does today’s Connections game involve any wordplay?
There’s a fill-in-the-blank for the purple category.
Ready to hear the answers? Keep scrolling if you want a little more help.
BEWARE: Spoilers follow for today’s Connections puzzle!
We’re about to give away some of the answers. Scroll slowly if you don’t want the whole thing spoiled. (The full solution is a bit further down.)
What are the ambiguous words in today’s Connections?
WILD can be an adjective meaning unpredictable, a noun referring to natural habitats (“in the WILD”), or a hockey team from Minnesota.
GENESIS can be the book of the Torah or Bible that describes the beginnings of the world—or just a word for beginnings (“the genesis of...”)
A NAP can be a texture on fabric (velvet notably has a nap) or a way of getting a little extra sleep.
What are the categories in today’s Connections?
Yellow: ORIGIN
Green: BIBLE BOOKS
Blue: NHL TEAMS
Purple: POWER ____
DOUBLE BEWARE: THE SOLUTION IS BELOW
Ready to learn the answers to today’s Connections puzzle? I give them all away below.
What are the yellow words in today’s Connections?
The yellow grouping is considered to be the most straightforward. The theme for today’s yellow group is ORIGIN and the words are: GENESIS, GERM, SEED, SOURCE.
What are the green words in today’s Connections?
The green grouping is supposed to be the second-easiest. The theme for today’s green category is BIBLE BOOKS and the words are: ACTS, JOB, KINGS, MARK.
What are the blue words in today’s Connections?
The blue grouping is the second-hardest. The theme for today’s blue category is NHL TEAMS and they are the Calgary FLAMES, Seattle KRAKEN, Dallas STARS, and Minnesota WILD.
What are the purple words in today’s Connections?
The purple grouping is considered to be the hardest. The theme for today’s purple category is POWER ____ and the words are: NAP, PLANT, RANGER, TRIP.
How I solved today’s Connections
MARK and GENESIS looked like books of the Bible, but when I added up ACTS, KINGS, and JOB, that was one too many.
I turned my attention to GERM, which can mean a microscopic, disease-causing organism—or the concept of humble beginnings (from a Latin word meaning a sprout). Bacteria were considered the “germs” of disease, which gives us the sense of the word as we use it today. SEED and SOURCE fit with GERM in that sense; so does GENESIS. 🟨 And now I only had four Bible books to submit. 🟩
Down to the last eight, I was stuck. Nothing seemed to go together. What could KRAKEN be, except the sea monster or the rum? I vaguely recalled that there was a sports team called the KRAKEN, so I looked that up—and found the ice hockey team the Seattle Kraken. Not being a hockey fan was going to make this hard for me, so I took a stab at RANGERs, WILD, and FLAMES. That grouping was “one away” so I knew that singular RANGER had to be the odd one out. I swapped it for STARS. 🟦 Finally, I submitted the last grouping without knowing what they had in common: POWER ____. 🟪
Connections Puzzle #121 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟦🟦🟦 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪
How to play Connections
I have a full guide to playing Connections, but here’s a refresher on the rules:
First, find the Connections game either on the New York Times website or in their Crossword app. You’ll see a game board with 16 tiles, each with one word or phrase. Your job is to select a group of four tiles that have something in common. Often they are all the same type of thing (for example: RAIN, SLEET, HAIL, and SNOW are all types of wet weather) but sometimes there is wordplay involved (for example, BUCKET, GUEST, TOP TEN, and WISH are all types of lists: bucket list, guest list, and so on).
Select four items and hit the Submit button. If you guessed correctly, the category and color will be revealed. (Yellow is easiest, followed by green, then blue, then purple.) If your guess was incorrect, you’ll get a chance to try again.
You win when you’ve correctly identified all four groups. But if you make four mistakes before you finish, the game ends and the answers are revealed.
How to win Connections
The most important thing to know to win Connections is that the groupings are designed to be tricky. Expect to see overlapping groups. For example, one puzzle seemed to include six breakfast foods: BACON, EGG, PANCAKE, OMELET, WAFFLE, and CEREAL. But BACON turned out to be part of a group of painters along with CLOSE, MUNCH, and WHISTLER, and EGG was in a group of things that come by the dozen (along with JUROR, ROSE, and MONTH). So don’t hit “submit” until you’ve confirmed that your group of four contains only those four things.
If you’re stuck, another strategy is to look at the words that seem to have no connection to the others. If all that comes to mind when you see WHISTLER is the painting nicknamed “Whistler’s Mother,” you might be on to something. When I solved that one, I ended up googling whether there was a painter named Close, because Close didn’t fit any of the obvious themes, either.
Another way to win when you’re stuck is, obviously, to read a few helpful hints–which is why we share these pointers every day. Check back tomorrow for the next puzzle!