If you’re looking for the Connections answer for Wednesday, September 27, 2023, read on—I’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solutions to all four categories. Beware, there are spoilers below for September 27, NYT Connections #108! Scroll to the end if you want some hints (and then the answer) to today’s Connections game.
By the way, 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.
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. Below, I’ll give you some oblique hints at today’s Connections answers. And further 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?
It may help to know one of the lesser-known definitions of MARK: a person targeted for a scam.
Hints for the themes in today’s Connections puzzle
Here are some spoiler-free hints for the groupings in today’s Connections:
- Yellow category – Go out on a limb for this one.
- Green category – Sweet as sugar.
- Blue category – You’ll feel like a stooge, a dunce, a dope if you get this one wrong.
- Purple category – You’ll need a good eye for this one.
Does today’s Connections game involve any wordplay?
Not exactly, but the purple category is a tricky one. There is some clever ambiguity in the unwritten words that the four tiles have in common. The other three groupings are all pretty straightforward.
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?
- SUCKER and LOLLIPOP can both be words for hard candy on a stick, but they don’t belong in the same category today. The SUCKER is the kind that’s born every minute.
- A GUM can be a goo secreted from trees, or a chewing GUM that you buy at the same kind of place that sells candy bars.
- A FACE can be the flat side of a cube or a sympathetic character in wrestling (a babyFACE), but here it just refers to the body part. You know, the front of your head.
- A NEEDLE can be part of a coniferous tree, as in “pine needles.” Here it isn’t related to the tree words, though.
- SAP can be the sugar-laden liquid that nourishes trees and can be tapped to make syrup, or another synonym for SUCKER. There’s a classic vaudeville gag where a narrator describes the changes in trees throughout the seasons, with actors on stage pretending to be the trees. Then the narrator asks someone from the audience to run around in the on-stage forest while he repeats the educational presentation. At the end, the punchline goes: “and now it is winter…but the sap is still running!”
What are the categories in today’s Connections?
- Yellow: PRODUCED BY TREES
- Green: CANDY STORE TREATS
- Blue: TARGET OF A SCHEME
- Purple: THINGS WITH EYE(S)
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 PRODUCED BY TREES and the words are: ACORN, CONE, POLLEN, SAP.
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 CANDY STORE TREATS and the words are: CHOCOLATE, GUM, LICORICE, LOLLIPOP.
What are the blue words in today’s Connections?
The blue grouping is the second-hardest. The theme for today’s blue category is TARGET OF A SCHEME and the words are: CHUMP, FOOL, MARK, SUCKER.
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 THINGS WITH EYE(S) and the words are: FACE, HURRICANE, NEEDLE, POTATO.
How I solved today’s Connections
This was a tough one that looked easy at first. Obviously some of the categories would be tree words (CONE, SAP, ACORN) dupes (FOOL, MARK, CHUMP) and candies (LOLLIPOP, CHOCOLATE, SUCKER). But those groups all had too many members. And I had no idea what to do with HURRICANE and POTATO.
I started jotting down groupings on a piece of paper, but had trouble keeping track of which words I hadn’t yet written down. So I did something different: I printed the page, cut out the tiles, and started arranging them on my desk. This helped me feel like I was getting a handle on the categories.
I slid the slips of paper around and settled on a group of candies that made sense to me (minus SUCKER, which felt redundant): LOLLIPOP, CHOCOLATE, LICORICE, GUM. I submitted that, and it was a hit. With a bit more arranging, I thought I had the trees (POLLEN, NEEDLE, CONE, ACORN) but that was “one away.” Instantly I knew SAP must be part of the group—I just didn’t know which other item would have to leave.
But that means SAP was no longer in the group of suckers, which meant I had a neat four of those: FOOL, MARK, SUCKER, CHUMP. Now I just had to decide which of my tree words went with HURRICANE, POTATO, and FACE—and then it hit me, the phrase “eye of the NEEDLE.” These are all things with eyes. I submitted the last two categories for a nearly-perfect score.
Connections
Puzzle #108
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