NYT ‘Connections’ Hints And Answers For Saturday, January 4

by · Forbes
Find the links between the words to win today's game of Connections.getty

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

Hey, everyone! I hope you’re enjoying the weekend. Like many of you, I’ll be back to work in earnest on Monday. I would have liked a longer break, of course, especially because next week is going to be a very busy one.

I’d like to have some stern words with whoever decided to hold the biggest consumer technology event of the year (CES) in the first week of January. I won’t be there in person, so no sojourn in Las Vegas for me this time. I’ll be assisting my colleagues remotely, but perhaps I’ll be able to join them another year.

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 Saturday, January 4, 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...

  • CHECK
  • CLOCK
  • CRUMPLE
  • CROSS
  • HOOK
  • TICK
  • BUCKLE
  • ANT
  • BALL
  • STRIKE
  • MELTING
  • WAD
  • SNAP
  • SCRUNCH
  • BRANCH
  • CLIP

And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:

  • Yellow group — crinkle some paper, perhaps
  • Green group — keep things together (physically, at least)
  • Blue group — work through your to-do list
  • Purple group — elements of a famous painting

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 — crush into a compact shape
  • Green group — fasteners
  • Blue group — mark as completed
  • Purple group — depicted in Dalí’s The Persistence of Memory

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 — crush into a compact shape (BALL, CRUMPLE, SCRUNCH, WAD)
  • Green group — fasteners (BUCKLE, CLIP, HOOK, SNAP)
  • Blue group — mark as completed (CHECK, CROSS, STRIKE, TICK)
  • Purple group — depicted in Dalí’s The Persistence of Memory (ANT, BRANCH, CLOCK, MELTING)

I’m sad to say my 12-game winning streak is over. Here’s how I fared:

🟪🟩🟦🟩

🟨🟨🟨🟨

🟦🟪🟦🟪

🟦🟦🟩🟩

🟪🟦🟦🟪

A red herring caught me out immediately with CLOCK, HOOK, STRIKE and CLIP giving me absolutely nada. With that out of the way, at least I was able to pinpoint the yellows quickly.

My thoughts kept turning to “MELTING point” but I didn’t really see anything that would go with that. I did suspect at this juncture that ANT would be a part of a wordplay group. However, I then figured that STRIKE and BRANCH could be followed by “out,” along with CHECK and CLOCK. No luck there either. Rats.

Folks, I was really struggling here. For a second, I thought (Peter) HOOK and (Adam) ANT could be a part of a group of new wave musicians. Ooh, maybe HOOK, CHECK, SNAP and CROSS as some football- or ice hockey-related terms? Nope.

My final guess was CHECK, CROSS, BRANCH and CLOCK. I thought those could be followed by “off.”

I really should have gotten the blues and greens in hindsight, though I was thinking of the latter group exclusively in terms of verbs.

I highly doubt I would have figured out the purples. I’ve viewed The Persistence of Memory in person at MoMA in New York. I might have eventually cottoned onto the MELTING CLOCK aspect, but I had no idea that there were ANTs and a BRANCH in that painting as well. Here’s a short video about it from MoMA:

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 Sunday’s game if you need them.

P.S. Much as I’d like to recommend Un Chien Andalou, a famous short film by Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel, that opening sequence feels a little too squirm-inducing to embed here (but hey, you can watch the whole film on YouTube).

Instead, let’s go with something completely different in the form of a random selection from my main playlist. Here’s the wonderful “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher” by Jackie Wilson:

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.