The New York Times’ daily Connections puzzle challenges players to group sixteen words into four categories of four. Today’s puzzle (#909) presented a particularly difficult configuration, with one category relying on obscure knowledge. Here’s a breakdown of the solutions, from the most straightforward to the most challenging.
Today’s Groups: A Walkthrough
The Connections game now includes a bot that scores your performance and tracks stats for registered players. This addition appeals to competitive players who enjoy analyzing their progress over time.
Here’s how today’s groupings broke down:
- Yellow (Easiest): The theme is norm. The answers are average, mean, par, and standard. These words all represent typical or expected values.
- Green: The theme is mollify. The answers are cool, moderate, settle, and temper. All of these words relate to calming or reducing intensity.
- Blue: The theme is a member of a titular group in an animation franchise. The answers are car, incredible, minion, and monster. These are all references to well-known animated movies: Cars, The Incredibles, Despicable Me, and Monsters, Inc.
- Purple (Most Difficult): The theme is starting with herpetofauna. The answers are Adderall (from adder, a type of snake), monitorship (from monitor lizard), newton (from newt, a type of salamander), and toady (from toad). This category is notably obscure, relying on knowledge of reptiles and amphibians.
Past Challenges: Patterns in Difficulty
The Connections puzzle has varied in difficulty over time. Some of the toughest puzzles to date included:
- Puzzle #5: The category “things you can set” proved tricky due to the varied interpretations of the word “set.”
- Puzzle #4: The theme “one in a dozen” required lateral thinking.
- Puzzle #3: “Streets on screen” tested knowledge of pop culture references.
- Puzzle #2: “Power ___” involved recognizing common phrases.
- Puzzle #1: The category “things that can run” highlighted the ambiguity of the word “run.”
The puzzle’s difficulty highlights how much the game relies on both vocabulary and niche knowledge. Some players will find this frustrating, while others will enjoy the challenge.
Ultimately, today’s Connections puzzle demonstrated the game’s ability to blend common words with highly specialized terminology, keeping players engaged and entertained.
