Skip to Main Content

Today’s NYT Connections Hints (and Answer) for Tuesday, October 17, 2023

Here are some hints to help you win NYT Connections #128.
NYT Connections board for October 17, 2023: GHOST, LEMON, GARDEN, DESSERT, STAR, RASPBERRY, CANDY, BOMB, FLOP, HISS, IGNORE, BOO, BOTTOM, DUD, JEER, JILT.
Credit: Connections/NYT

If you’re looking for the Connections answer for Tuesday, October 17, 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 17, NYT Connections #128! 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?

Nothing too obscure. Here are a few definitions that might help:

  • A RASPBERRY is a fruit, or the sound you make when you flap your lips (and/or tongue) together to make something like a fart noise.

  • DESERT is a place where nothing grows, or a verb meaning to abandon someone or something. I point this out because probably a lot of us are skimming over it and reading this word as DESSERT.

Hints for the themes in today’s Connections puzzle

Here are some spoiler-free hints for the groupings in today’s Connections:

  • Yellow category - How to say you’re not happy with something.

  • Green category - The thing you’re not happy with.

  • Blue category - What you might do to a person you’re not happy with.

  • Purple category - Like a chair, or a cradle.

Does today’s Connections game involve any wordplay?

There’s a fill-in-the-blank for the purple category. Otherwise the words mean what they say.

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?

  • A LEMON can be a sour yellow fruit, but it can also be a product that fails to function properly—leading to lemon laws that require car manufacturers to buy back defective vehicles.

  • A GHOST may go BOO, but you can also GHOST somebody when you JILT them.

  • Although they may sound delicious together, CANDY, RASPBERRY, LEMON, and DESERT are all in different categories today. (Note the single S in that last one!)

What are the categories in today’s Connections?

  • Yellow: TAUNTS

  • Green: FAILURE

  • Blue: RUDELY BREAK OFF CONTACT

  • Purple: ROCK ____

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 TAUNTS and the words are: BOO, HISS, JEER, RASPBERRY.

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 FAILURE and the words are: BOMB, DUD, FLOP, LEMON.

What are the blue words in today’s Connections?

The blue grouping is the second-hardest. The theme for today’s blue category is RUDELY BREAK OFF CONTACT and the words are: DESERT, GHOST, IGNORE, JILT.

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 ROCK ____ and the words are: BOTTOM, CANDY, GARDEN, STAR.

How I solved today’s Connections

A DUD, a FLOP, a BOMB, a LEMON. Those are things that go over like a lead balloon. (LEMON makes me think of cars, BOMB of theatrical performances, but they’re all pretty clearly related.) 🟩

And what do you do when you’re watching a DUD of a performance? You BOO, HISS, JEER, and...wait, we’re missing one.

Change gears. You can GHOST someone, JILT them, IGNORE them, or...ah, yes. There’s only one S in this: you can DESERT them. 🟦

With only eight tiles left, I realized what I’d been missing: a RASPBERRY is a rude sound you can make at someone. That’s what goes with BOO, HISS, and JEER. (With the LEMON, CANDY, and my misread of DES[S]ERT, I’d been thinking of the fruit.) 🟨

We’re left with GARDEN, CANDY, BOTTOM, and STAR. Took me a minute of trying different phrases, but I ended up humming “Big Rock Candy Mountain” and realized we could tend a rock GARDEN, hit rock BOTTOM, or be a rock STAR. Puzzle solved. 🟪

Connections 
Puzzle #128
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟪🟪🟪🟪

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!