Today's NYT Connections Hints (and Answer) for Monday, December 18, 2023

Credit: Ian Moore

This might look like a number-themed or street-themed puzzle, but not everything is what it seems! If you’re looking for the Connections answer for Monday, December 18, 2023, 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 December 18, NYT Connections #190! 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?

To properly get one of the categories, you’ll want to know your New York City geography. I didn’t, so I left that one for last, and I still did okay. You will too. I have faith in you.

Hints for the themes in today’s Connections puzzle

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

Yellow category - Just a sec!

Green category - Foremost.

Blue category - These are not streets.

Purple category - More than a minute.

Does today’s Connections game involve any wordplay?

There’s a fill-in-the-blank for purple, as we often see. One other category relies on a subtlety of related words that are not included—but you don’t need to know that to make a plausible stab at the category. 

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?

BROADWAY can be a style of musical theater, or the New York City avenue that is home to many such theaters.

FIRST, SECOND, and ELEVENTH are all ordinal numbers, but they don’t go in the same category today, and none of their categories are number-themed. Think of other uses of these words, like the FIRST chair in an orchestra, or the SECOND hand on a clock. 

MAIN is not a street today, but MADISON Avenue is.

What are the categories in today’s Connections?

Yellow: BRIEF MOMENT

Green: PRIMARY

Blue: AVENUES IN N.Y.C.

Purple: ____ HOUR

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 BRIEF MOMENT and the words are: FLASH, JIFFY, SECOND, WINK.

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 PRIMARY and the words are: CHIEF, FIRST, MAIN, PRINCIPAL.

What are the blue words in today’s Connections?

The blue grouping is the second-hardest. The theme for today’s blue category is AVENUES IN N.Y.C. and the words are: BROADWAY, FIFTH, MADISON, PARK. (In New York City, the avenues run north-south and streets run east-west. Broadway doesn’t have “Avenue” in its name, but it’s a mostly north-south street.)

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 ____ HOUR and the words are: AMATEUR, ELEVENTH, HAPPY, RUSH.

How I solved today’s Connections

The street names threw me–am I supposed to know, as a non-New Yorker, what is on FIFTH street, ELEVENTH street, and so on? 

So I started looking for other meanings to the words. SECOND is a short length of time, like a WINK or a JIFFY. 🟨 Then I realized that ELEVENTH could refer to the ELEVENTH hour, alongside RUSH hour, HAPPY hour, and AMATEUR hour. 🟪

FIRST goes with CHIEF and MAIN,  🟩 and then finally we’re left with actual streets: MADISON, PARK, FIFTH, BROADWAY. Sorry, avenues. 🟦

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!