NEW ‘Connections’ hints and answers for Thursday 26th December

On By Littum

Looking for Wednesday connections tips and answers instead? You can find them here:

ForbesNEW ‘Connections’ hints and answers for Wednesday 25th DecemberBy Chris Holt

Hello everyone! I hope you make the most of this holiday week.

I’ve been trying to squeeze in a game here and there, but I’m quickly running out of time to play everything I had on my list to check off before the end of the year. Although it’s still in flux, I think my list of best games of 2024 is shaping up nicely, and I’m excited to share that in the new 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 people. I’m always interested in finding out how other people approach the game, so join in! It’s funny.

It’s also the best way to give me feedback on the column, especially on the rare(!) occasions when I mess up.

Today’s NEW Connections advice and answers for Thursday 26 December will come straight up.

How Connections plays

Connections is a free, popular New York Times daily word game. You get a new puzzle at midnight every day. You can play on NEW website or game app.

You are presented with a grid of 16 words. Your task is to arrange them into four groups of four by finding out the connections between them. The groups can be things like clickable items, names of research study participants, or words with a body part in front.

There is only one solution to each puzzle and you have to be careful when it comes to words that can fit into more than one category. You can mix up the words to perhaps help you see connections 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 hardest. The purple group often involves puns.

Choose four words that you think fit together and press send. If you guess and you’re wrong, you lose a life. If you’re close to having a correct group, you may see a message telling you that you’re one word away from getting it right, but you 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 some tips and if you’re really struggling, today’s is Connections answer. As with Wordle and other similar games, it’s easy to share results with your friends on social media and group chat.

If you have one NEW Free access or Play subscription, you can access the publication’s Connections file. This includes all previous games of Connectionsso you can go back and play any of them you missed.

Apart from the first 60 games or so, you should be able to find my tips 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’s today’s hookup tip?

Roll slowly! Right after the hints for each of today’s Connections groups, I will reveal what the groups are without immediately telling you what words are included in them.

Today’s 16 words are…

  • TIDY
  • ALA
  • BEAUTIFUL
  • OLDER
  • FIR
  • LIKE
  • PINE
  • MISS
  • HEALTHY
  • COARSE
  • SHEET
  • PALM
  • SORE
  • RESPECTABLE
  • ORE
  • AROUND

And hints for today Connections groups are:

  • Yellow group – more or less
  • Green group — large flora
  • Blue group – plenty
  • Purple group – some places, too short

What are today’s connection groups?

Do you need extra help?

Be warned: we’re starting to come in spoiler territory.

Today’s Connections groups are…

  • Yellow group – approx
  • Green group – trees
  • Blue group — significant, as an amount
  • Purple group — US state abbreviations according to the AP Style Guide

What are today’s connections answers?

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

This is your last warning!

Today’s Connections the answers are…

  • Yellow group – approx.
  • Green group – trees (ELDER, PALM, PINE, GREY)
  • Blue group — large, as an amount (TASTY, HEALTHY, RESPECTABLE, TIDY)
  • Purple group — US state abbreviations, according to the AP Style Guide (ALA, ARK, MISS, ORE)

My second perfect game in a row extends my streak to four. Here’s how I managed:

Okay, okay, it wasn’t actually a perfect game. I misclicked my first guess and accidentally chose ALA instead of GROV to get the yellows. The greens were also very straightforward.

Blues didn’t give me any trouble either (although I could see TIDY giving some people pause here). Not much goofing off there. That left the purple ones.

I was very happy that the other three groups were relatively easy as I didn’t get the connection here and probably would have struggled with it. But given some time to think about it, I think I may have finally cracked this code.

They were related to ALabama, ARKensas, MISSissippi and OREgon. AP also refers to the Associated Press, which publishes a style guide that many American publications adhere to.

That’s all there is to it for today Connections clues and answers. Be sure to check my blog tomorrow for tips and the fix for Friday’s match if you need them.

PS I have a few song recommendations that I’ve gathered so let’s start jamming through them. For no good reason that I can think of, I’ve had the original version of “Life is a Highway” by Tom Cochrane stuck in my head for a while. It’s so catchy:

Have a nice day! Make sure to drink enough water! Call someone you love!

If you are so inclined, go for it follow my blog for more coverage of Connections and other puns and even some video game news, insights and analysis. It helps me a lot! Also follow me further Blue sky! It’s fun there.