Here for today’s NYT Connections hints and answers? It can be a challenging word puzzle to solve, even with hints. If you are struggling with today’s game, then you’ve arrived at the right spot. Here we post daily Connections answers, alongside hints and helpful tips and tricks to up your game. So, check out today’s Connections hints and answers for game #912 on December 9, 2025.
What is NYT Connections?
NYT Connections is a word game organised by The NY Times. There are 16 words spread on a 4 x 4 grid, and players have to create the correct groups of four words to solve the puzzle. Every group of four words is related in some way, and players must find this relation to figure out the Connections hint and answer.
Connections Hint and Answers Today
The Connections have four different categories, each color-coded based on difficulty. The difficulty level starts with Yellow as the easiest, followed by Green and then Blue, culminating in Purple as the most challenging.
The difficulty is primarily based on the connection strength of the words, so directly connected words are placed in easier difficulty, such as synonyms, and loosely connected words are placed in greater difficulty, like surnames of popular Hollywood actresses. If you wish to learn about the game in-depth, follow our deep dive into how to play Connections, along with useful tips and strategies.
For anyone having trouble finding the answer, here are the NYT Connections hints and answers for December 9, 2025:
Difficulty Level for Today’s Connections
The difficulty for today’s Connections is 2 out of 5. This is based on my experience of solving the puzzle.
Although difficulty is subjective, the above rating defines 5 as the hardest and 1 as the easiest to solve. If you differ with my opinion on today’s difficulty, drop a comment below to let me know.
How to Play NYT Connections?
If you are a new player and are having trouble solving NYT Connections, then here are some quick tips and tricks to help you out:
- Try to look at the whole picture: You will often find multiple words that seem connected differently to each other. Before you decide to double down on one connection, check if more than four words could relate to it. If so, then it’s a hint that the connection you found is most likely incorrect, and you need to reconsider.
- You don’t have unlimited lifebars: Connections only give you four chances to get it wrong, after which the puzzle will be marked as lost. Thankfully, when players are close to getting a correct answer, the game will hint with the “One Away” message. If you have gotten an answer wrong and don’t see this message, you need to reconsider the other categories over the one you got incorrect.
- Shuffling is useful: NYT Connections has a button for shuffling the words. Although it only shuffles the words in the grid, a change of perspective can often lead to correct answers.
In the end, it’s only a puzzle game. So, don’t stress if today’s puzzle gave you trouble. You will get another chance tomorrow, and we will be back with another guide to help you.
Here are the NYT Connections category hints for today — Yellow: Take into account, Green: Animals with stripes, Blue: Rainbow themes, and Purple: Words that sound like numbers at the start.
Here are the Connections categories for today — Yellow: bear in mind, Green: striped animals, Blue: associated with rainbows, and Purple: beginning with number homophones.
The ‘One Away’ message means that out of the four selected words, only one is incorrect. This means that three of the words are connected to the same category.
The different colors in Connections mean the category’s difficulty level. Yellow is the easiest and has the most directly connected words, followed by Green and then Blue, and Purple is the hardest, with words having distant connections.
To play past Connections games, you can head to the Connections archives and pick the date you wish to try out.
