NYT Connections Hints And Answers: Thursday, July 16

Find the links between the words to win today's game of Connections.

getty

Not the Connections game you’re looking for? Here are the hints and solution for Wednesday’s game.

If you want to hang out with a lovely bunch of folks and chat about NYT Connections, other daily puzzle games and even the World Cup, join our Discord community!

Hey there, Connectors! I hope you’ve had a fantastic week so far.

(Spoiler warning for Wednesday’s game)

I was going to mention this in yesterday’s intro before realizing the red herring was tennis-related. I didn’t want to give anything away unintentionally.

This is the first year in a very long time that I didn’t watch a single minute of Wimbledon. I usually love watching Wimbledon too. Tennis is a brilliant spectator sport. Between the World Cup and other things, it just slipped by for me this year.

While I’d be interested in attending Wimbledon in person someday, I’d rather that my parents landed tickets before me. I’m going to have to enter the ticket lottery for them for 2027.

In the meantime, even though I have other things going on, I should try to go to the Canadian Open! I went once and had a great time. The men’s tournament is taking place here – the men’s and women’s tournaments alternate swap between Montreal and Toronto each year. Best of all, save for the injured Carlos Alcaraz, all of the world’s top 72 men’s players are taking part.

Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Thursday, July 16 are coming right up. Let’s get rolling!

How To Play Connections

Connections is a free daily New York Times game that challenges you to arrange a grid of 16 words, phrases or symbols into four groups. The categories can involve anything from simple synonyms and cultural references to words that start with homonyms for birds.

There’s only one correct answer. Connections often features red herrings and other tricks like wordplay. You can make three mistakes, but a fourth spells game over and the end of your current streak!

The categories are color coded. Yellow is supposed to be the easiest to figure out, followed by green, blue and then purple. But it’s all relative as Connections tests your knowledge and deductive reasoning skills.

You can track your stats over time and earn badges for achievements like lengthy streaks or achieving a reverse rainbow. This involves submitting the purple category first, followed by blue, green and yellow. I’m here to help players figure out which is which.

You can play Connections on the NYT website or NYT Games app. NYT subscribers can access the full archive of more than 1,100 games of Connections. Each day’s game goes live at midnight local time.

Today’s NYT Connections Word List

Scroll slowly!

After today’s Connections word list, I’ll give you a hint for each category. After that, I’ll reveal one word that goes into each group. Then I’ll reveal the categories, followed by the full answers.

Got it? Cool.

Today’s 16 words are...

• NEEDLE
• INK
• JET
• DOT MATRIX
• TONER
• POINT BREAK
• LASER
• CHARCOAL
• PEEL
• PITCH
• PERIOD PIECE
• BULLSEYE
• SPOT REMOVER
• EYE CREAM
• CLOCKWORK
• CLAY MASK

A Hint For Today’s Connections Groups

The hints for today’s Connections categories are:

• 🟨 Yellow group — they could make you glow
• 🟩 Green group — from the dark
• 🟦 Blue group — nailed it
• 🟪 Purple group — a little to the left

One Answer For Each Connections Group

Be warned: we’re starting to get into spoiler territory.

Let’s take a look at one answer for each group.

Here we go…

• 🟨 Yellow group — TONER
• 🟩 Green group — PITCH
• 🟦 Blue group — CLOCKWORK
• 🟪 Purple group — PERIOD PIECE

Today’s Connections Categories

Today’s Connections groups are...

• 🟨 Yellow group — skincare products
• 🟩 Green group — shades of black
• 🟦 Blue group — associated with precision
• 🟪 Purple group — starting with tiny marks

What Is Today’s Connections Answer?

Spoiler alert! Don’t scroll any further down the page until you’re ready to find out today’s Connections answers.

This is your last chance to look away.

This is your final warning!

Today’s Connections answers are...

• 🟨 Yellow group — skincare products (CLAY MASK, EYE CREAM, PEEL, TONER)
• 🟩 Green group — shades of black (CHARCOAL, INK, JET, PITCH)
• 🟦 Blue group — associated with precision (BULLSEYE, CLOCKWORK, LASER, NEEDLE)
• 🟪 Purple group — starting with tiny marks (DOT MATRIX, PERIOD PIECE, POINT BREAK, SPOT REMOVER)

I suspected that DOT MATRIX either had to be part of a printer group or had some wordplay going on (perhaps as a match for CLAY MASK as a group of "The ____" movies from the '90s). Alas, the printers were a red herring.

I wasn't sure about those movies right away. So I matched up TONER with other skincare terms. I missed the mark a couple of times before realizing PEEL and CLAY MASK were better fits than SPOT REMOVER and CHARCOAL. I finally had the yellows.

The greens were up next. In hindsight, those should have been pretty obvious.

At that point, the purples finally became clear to me. It helped that they were the only remaining phrases. With only the blues left, I was able to roughly (originally enough) figure out the category before submitting those for win 501 on my current streak.

A tough game today! How did you get on this time? Here's my grid:

🟩🟪🟨🟦
🟨🟩🟪🟨
🟨🟩🟨🟪
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟦🟦🟦🟦

Want to know more about how everything fits together? Let’s explore today’s game in more depth in my NYT Connections Answers Explained column. You can check that out by visiting my author page.

Be sure to check my blog tomorrow for hints and the answer for tomorrow’s game of Connections if you need them.

P.S. Let's go with another cover I only just discovered of a song I love deeply. I had Weezer's "Buddy Holly" stuck in my head, so I went on the hunt for covers and found this really cool, stripped-back, indie rock-style one from The Jungle Giants. It's real good. I like everything here, from the vocals to the bass work:

Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Be kind to yourself and each other! Call someone you love!

Please follow my blog for more NYT Connections hints and help with other word games, and even some video game news, insights and analysis. I’d really appreciate that as it helps me out. If you share this column with others who play Connections, that would be lovely too. You can also read my weekend editions of this column and more of my writing at my newsletter, Pastimes.