Today's NYT Connections Hints (and Answer) for Tuesday, December 12, 2023

Credit: Ian Moore

Today is a tricky one! If you’re looking for the Connections answer for Tuesday, December 12, 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 12, NYT Connections #184! 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?

Yep! If you love arcade games, but not necessarily video games, you might recognize some specialized terminology. (That link is a spoiler, don’t click it unless you’re ready!)

Hints for the themes in today’s Connections puzzle

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

Yellow category - Poor visibility in this weather…

Green category - Stay right behind him!

Blue category - Hope you brought your quarters.

Purple category - This land is their land.

Does today’s Connections game involve any wordplay?

The purple category is a fill-in-the-blank, but a more particular type than we usually see. 

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?

A TRACK and a TRAIL can be places to walk. Today they are both in the same category, but in a different sense of the word (they’re verbs today).

FIN and FLIPPER can both describe the appendages of aquatic creatures—fish have FINs; seals have FLIPPERs—but these words are in different categories today, and neither refers to animals. 

A CLOUD can be literal (in the sky) or metaphorical (like a CLOUD of doubt). Today it may help to think of the fact that FOG is, essentially, a CLOUD that is close enough to the ground you can walk through it. 

A PLUNGER can be a device used to unclog a toilet, or any contraption meant to be pushed down, like the PLUNGER of a syringe, or the spring-loaded button that starts a pinball game. 

What are the categories in today’s Connections?

Yellow: MURKY CONDITION

Green: FOLLOW

Blue: PINBALL MACHINE COMPONENTS

Purple: ____LAND COUNTRIES

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 MURKY CONDITION and the words are: CLOUD, FOG, HAZE, MIST.

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 FOLLOW and the words are: SHADOW, TAIL, TRACK, TRAIL.

What are the blue words in today’s Connections?

The blue grouping is the second-hardest. The theme for today’s blue category is PINBALL MACHINE COMPONENTS and the words are: BALL, BUMPER, FLIPPER, PLUNGER.

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 ____LAND COUNTRIES and the words are: ICE, IRE, FIN, NETHER.

How I solved today’s Connections

What’s a PLUNGER doing here? Are we cleaning a toilet? I saw BALL and TRACK and thought maybe we had a Rube Goldberg machine going. Then I saw FLIPPER and realized I was close–it’s a pinball machine. Pinball machines have BUMPERs, FLIPPERs, PLUNGERs, and a BALL. 🟦

FOG, HAZE, and MIST clearly go together. I take a stab at CLOUD to complete the group, and I’m right. 🟨

TRACK and TRAIL seem to go together, and now I see that they are verbs. You can also SHADOW or TAIL someone. 🟩 I didn’t get the final grouping at all, but hey, you only need to solve three groups for a perfect score. 🟪

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!