NYT ‘Connections’ Hints And Answers For Sunday, January 26

Looking for Friday’s Connections hints and answers instead? You can find them here:

ForbesNYT ‘Connections’ Hints And Answers For Saturday, January 25By Kris Holt

Hey, everyone! I hope you’re making the most of this weekend.

When things aren’t going all that great (or even sometimes when they are), there are a couple of things I say to my partner:

1. This too shall pass.
2. It’ll all be all right in the end. If it’s not all right, it’s not the end.

I recently stumbled back upon the thing from which I cribbed these (I hadn’t heard of “this too shall pass” before then). Almost exactly five years ago, I heard them discussed in a radio interview with Tom Hanks. You can listen to that segment here at 12:32:

I’ve always been someone who gives equal weight to praise and criticism. But to hear the wonderful Hanks crystallize that mindset so succinctly and so perfectly has really stuck with me. I hope you find it helpful too.

Before we get going, I’ve started a discussion group for Connections and this column on Discord. You can chat about each game (and other topics) with me and other folks. I’m always interested to find out how other people approach the game, so join us! It’s fun.

It’s also the best way to give me any feedback about the column, especially on the rare(!) occasions that I mess something up.

Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Sunday, January 26, are coming right up.

How To Play Connections

Connections is a free, popular New York Times daily word game. You get a new puzzle at midnight every day. You can play on the NYT website or Games app.

You’re presented with a grid of 16 words. Your task is to arrange them into four groups of four by figuring out the links between them. The groups could be things like items you can click, names for research study participants or words preceded by a body part.

There’s only one solution for each puzzle, and you’ll need to be careful when it comes to words that might fit into more than one category. You can shuffle the words to perhaps help you see links between them.

Each group is color coded. The yellow group is usually the easiest to figure out, blue and green fall in the middle, and the purple group is usually the most difficult one. The purple group often involves wordplay.

Select four words you think go together and press Submit. If you make a guess and you’re incorrect, you’ll lose a life. If you’re close to having a correct group, you might see a message telling you that you’re one word away from getting it right, but you’ll still need to figure out which one to swap.

If you make four mistakes, it’s game over. Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen with the help of some hints, and, if you’re really struggling, today’s Connections answers. As with Wordle and other similar games, it’s easy to share results with your friends on social media and group chats.

If you have an NYT All Access or Games subscription, you can access the publication’s Connections archive. This includes every previous game of Connections, so you can go back and play any of those that you have missed.

Aside from the first 60 games or so, you should be able to find my hints for each grid via Google if you need them! Just click here and add the date of the game for which you need clues or the answers to the search query.

What Are Today’s Connections Hints?

Scroll slowly! Just after the hints for each of today’s Connections groups, I’ll reveal what the groups are without immediately telling you which words go into them.

Today’s 16 words are…

• RAVEN
• SILO
• HITCH
• PROMO
• TRAILER
• DISCOG
• FISH
• TRACTOR
• BALLY
• FARM
• CLOISTER
• GATHER
• SEPARATE
• HUNT
• AXLES
• SECLUDE

And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:

• Yellow group — grocery store alternatives
• Green group — distance
• Blue group — elements of a vital component of the logistics industry
• Purple group — extended parties

What Are Today’s Connections Groups?

Need some extra help?

Be warned: we’re starting to get into spoiler territory.

Today’s Connections groups are…

• Yellow group — ways to get food
• Green group — keep apart
• Blue group — parts of a big rig
• Purple group — dance events plus a letter

What Are Today’s Connections Answers?

Spoiler alert! Don’t scroll any further down the page until you’re ready to find out today’s Connections answers.

This is your final warning!

Today’s Connections answers are…

• Yellow group — ways to get food (FARM, FISH, GATHER, HUNT)
• Green group — keep apart (CLOISTER, SECLUDE, SEPARATE, SILO)
• Blue group — parts of a big rig (AXLES, HITCH, TRACTOR, TRAILER)
• Purple group — dance events plus a letter (BALLY, DISCOG, PROMO, RAVEN)

My 14-game overall win streak now includes 11 straight perfect games. What the heck is going on? I feel like I’m starting to see the Matrix in front of me when I play Connections. Here’s how I fared:

🟩🟩🟩🟩

🟨🟨🟨🟨

🟦🟦🟦🟦

🟪🟪🟪🟪

I clocked right away that there was probably some kind of wordplay going on with DISCOG and BALLY. As such, they were likely members of the purple group. But instead of trying to figure that out (I was thinking of the former more in terms of “discography” anyway) to try and get a reverse rainbow, I turned my attention elsewhere.

The greens jumped out at me for the most part. Even though I wasn’t super certain about the meaning of CLOISTER and there was a potential group of farm-related words including SILO, I decided to go for it and was right.

The yellows were then easier to put together. With just two groups left, it wasn’t too difficult to find the blues. That left the purples for a win. I didn’t figure out the connection there, but hey, it’s the weekend and I shouldn’t have to, like, think if I don’t want to.

That’s all there is to it for today’s Connections clues and answers. Be sure to check my blog tomorrow for hints and the solution for Monday’s game if you need them.

P.S. Over in our Discord group, BearTimeguessr to my attention. It’s a fun spin on Geoguesser in that you try to find the location where a photo — often one of a notable historical event — was taken. You have to try to guess the year in which it was snapped too.

I’ve been watching way, way too much of Geoguesser YouTubers like Rainbolt instantly pinpointing certain locations anywhere in the world. I swear that guy has every blade of grass on the planet mapped out in his head.

Being a newsman (to use an antiquated term), the historical aspect of Timeguessr speaks to me. In a recent daily game, I was particularly pleased about getting the location of a picture of Manuel Neuer and Germany fans almost spot on, as well as the year — it was taken just after Germany won the World Cup in Rio de Janeiro in 2014.

It’s a fun game, I promise. And hey, if enough people get into it, we could even set up a little space to discuss the daily challenge in the Discord group.

Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Call someone you love!

If you’re so inclined, please do follow my blog for more coverage of Connections and other word games and even some video game news, insights and analysis. It helps me out a lot! Also, follow me on Bluesky! It’s fun there.