NYT Connections today — my hints and answers for Thursday, December 12 (game #550)
Nice console games 
Good morning! Let’s play Connections, the NYT’s clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need clues.
What should you do once you’ve finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I’ve also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc’s Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.
NYT Connections today (game #550) – today’s words
Today’s NYT Connections words are…
- See picture for clues! But if you want a description…
- Ice cream
- Bed
- Saw
- Tee-shirt
- Music notes
- Gear
- Rodents of some kind
- Triangle
- Zipper
- Nuts
- Hot drink in a cup
- Multiple letter Gs
- Mouth
- Golf tee
- Comb
- Building with dollar sign
NYT Connections today (game #550) – hint #1 – group hints
What are some clues for today’s NYT Connections groups?
- Yellow: The A-Team’s ‘Mr’
- Green: They’re not all for eating
- Blue: How rude!
- Purple: Watercourse elements
Need more clues?
We’re firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today’s NYT Connections puzzles…
NYT Connections today (game #550) – hint #2 – group answers
What are the answers for today’s NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: THINGS THAT SOUND LIKE “T”
- GREEN: OBJECTS WITH TEETH
- BLUE: MILD OATHS
- PURPLE: PARTS OF A RIVER
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Connections today (game #550) – the answers
The answers to today’s Connections, game #550, are…
- YELLOW: THINGS THAT SOUND LIKE “T” TEA, TEE (GOLF), TEE (SHIRT), TI (MUSICAL NOTE)
- GREEN: OBJECTS WITH TEETH COMB, GEAR, SAW, ZIPPER
- BLUE: MILD OATHS FUDGE, GEEZ, NUTS, RATS
- PURPLE: PARTS OF A RIVER BANK, BED, DELTA, MOUTH
- My rating: Impossible
- My score: Fail
Oh come on, NYT! Seriously? This is just too hard to even remotely count as fun. Will anyone solve this today? Am I just stupid? Pictograms are fine as a concept, and yeah it’s a welcome change from the normal Connections routine, shaking things up a bit – but if you’re going to do this at least make it a little easier!
Or maybe I just got unlucky, because I was on the right path with a couple of today’s groups. It’s just that there were so many options that might have worked, I was left scrabbling around in the dark.
For instance, I spotted right away that SAW, ZIPPER, GEAR and COMB were all OBJECTS WITH TEETH, but so is a MOUTH, so I included that twice and lost a couple of guesses there. Ditto MILD OATHS; I had GEEZ (Gs), RATS and NUTS, but thought the fourth was D’OH as in Homer Simpson, based on the picture of a musical score with the word DO written on it. Trouble was, the arrow was pointing to a different note, and I don’t read music so never realized that was actually a TI and instead went with a different group; the real final answer was FUDGE.
So actually yeah, let’s talk about some of these pictures, because how was anyone supposed to know that bit near the top of the ice cream was FUDGE? It could be anything! It could be chocolate or strawberry sauce, it’s not like this is a high-resolution photo. And as for DELTA… I mean that’s a triangle.
I’m never playing this game again (until tomorrow).
Yesterday’s NYT Connections answers (Wednesday, 11 December, game #549)
- YELLOW: UTOPIA PARADISE, SEVENTH HEAVEN, SHANGRI-LA, XANADU
- GREEN: THINGS YOU SHAKE HAIRSPRAY, MAGIC 8 BALL, SALAD DRESSING, SNOWGLOBE
- BLUE: PROPER NOUN PORTMANTEAUX JAZZERCISE, PARALYMPICS, POKÉMON, WIKIPEDIA
- PURPLE: ENDING IN SYNONYMS FOR “FRIEND” KETCHUM, PAYPAL, PRIMATE, ROSEBUD
What is NYT Connections?
NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.
On the plus side, you don’t technically need to solve the final one, as you’ll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What’s more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.
It’s a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.
It’s playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
