Today's NYT Connections Hints (and Answer) for Friday, January 5, 2024

Credit: Ian Moore

If you’re looking for the Connections answer for Friday, January 5, 2024, read on—I’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solutions to all four categories. Along the way, I’ll explain the meanings of the trickier words and we’ll learn how everything fits together. Beware, there are spoilers below for January 5, NYT Connections #208! 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 farther 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 specialized today.

Hints for the themes in today’s Connections puzzle

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

Yellow category - To razz.

Green category - The very acme.

Blue category - Exactly this many.

Purple category - Some more things that could go in this group: distillations of alcohol, algebra variables.

Does today’s Connections game involve any wordplay?

The purple group is a “what ___ may mean” category today; good luck figuring out what fills that blank. 

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?

GROSS can mean disgusting, but it’s also a number meaning a DOZEN DOZEN (that is, 144). 

KID and ADULT are in different categories today. Think of KID as meaning TEASE, and ADULT as the adjective.

PEAK and TOP do go together; think of how you’d describe something that reaches a great HEIGHT. 

TEN is a number, and there is a number-related category today, but TEN is not in it.

What are the categories in today’s Connections?

Yellow: PLAYFULLY BOTHER

Green: APEX

Blue: WORDS FOR SPECIFIC QUANTITIES

Purple: WHAT “X” MIGHT MEAN

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 PLAYFULLY BOTHER and the words are: JOSH, KID, RIB, TEASE.

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 APEX and the words are: HEIGHT, MAX, PEAK, TOP.

What are the blue words in today’s Connections?

The blue grouping is the second-hardest. The theme for today’s blue category is WORDS FOR SPECIFIC QUANTITIES and the words are: DOZEN (12), GROSS (144, a dozen dozen), PAIR (2), SCORE (20, as in “four score and seven years ago…”)

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 WHAT “X” MIGHT MEAN and the words are: ADULT (as in “X rated”), KISS (as in “XOXOXO”), TEN (the Roman numeral), TIMES (multiplication).

How I solved today’s Connections

They’re not going to put something as ADULT as a pairing of KISS and TEASE in the same category, so TEASE must go with KID as a verb meaning to joke around. 🟨 I almost wanted GROSS and SCORE to go together, but I realized these were separate groups: something can reach its HEIGHT or PEAK 🟩 while GROSS refers to a specific number, a DOZEN DOZEN. 🟦 Finally, we’re left with the ADULT meaning of ADULT, next to KISS, TEN, and TIMES–all things sometimes symbolized with the letter X. 🟪

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!