NYT ‘Connections’ Hints And Answers For Tuesday, January 7

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

Hey, everyone! I’m excited about today’s recommendation — it’s one I can’t believe I haven’t used before! I’m going to keep the preamble short so we can get to it a little sooner.

Before we get started, 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 Tuesday, January 7, are coming right up.

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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...

• A FEW
• LOVE
• BARBERSHOP
• ESSAYS
• A ROSE
• CERTAIN
• ENOUGH
• A LIFE
• A DEAL
• PART ONE
• VARIOUS
• A CAPPELLA
• A NOVEL
• DOO-WOP
• SOME
• MADRIGAL

And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:

• Yellow group — instrument-less tunes
• Green group — small quantity
• Blue group — common sights at an airport shop, perhaps
• Purple group — repeated phrases

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 — vocal music
• Green group — a handful of
• Blue group — book subtitles
• Purple group — ____ is _____ is ____

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 — vocal music (A CAPPELLA, BARBERSHOP, DOO-WOP, MADRIGAL)
• Green group — a handful of (A FEW, CERTAIN, SOME, VARIOUS)
• Blue group — book subtitles (A LIFE, A NOVEL, ESSAYS, PART ONE)
• Purple group — ____ is _____ is ____ (A DEAL, A ROSE, ENOUGH, LOVE)

No perfect game, but that’s three wins in a row for me. Here’s how I fared:

🟨🟨🟨🟨

🟦🟦🟩🟦

🟦🟦🟦🟦

🟩🟩🟩🟩

🟪🟪🟪🟪

Huh, well, this one’s a bit different. At least I was able to knock off the yellows quickly. I was able to delve into the recesses of my memory to recall that, like the others, a MADRIGAL is a type of vocal group.

I then thought that A NOVEL, PART ONE, ESSAYS and VARIOUS might be words that you see on the front cover of a book. I was one away from a group, and figured that A LIFE (as in a biography) might be a better fit than VARIOUS. Yup, that got me the blues.

With fewer words to choose from, the greens became clear to me right away. I didn’t figure out the purple connection before submitting it. That’s a verrrry nebulous collection of phrases that don’t really mean anything. Just reiterations of concepts for emphasis. Not a fan of that one, and I really struggled to think of a better clue for it.

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 Wednesday’s game if you need them.

P.S. I bet you were a little worried that today’s recommendation would be an a cappella song (though I do like that stuff, by and large!). However, the purples brought to mind a line from my favorite film of the 2010s, “a gig is a gig is a gig is a gig.” Somehow, there’s a lengthy loop of that line on YouTube.

Anyway, the film in question is Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. I was the exact right age to see this movie when it came out and I connected with it on so many levels, even if Scott is a selfish jerk. I’m not even sure that it’s my favorite Edgar Wright film, but it’s certainly my favorite from that decade. It’s a blast, and that cast is incredible:

And for a bonus recommendation from the soundtrack (which is aces all around), here’s “Black Sheep.” It’s such a good song:

Have a great day! Make sure to drink enough water! 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.