NEW ‘Connections’ hints and answers for Tuesday 17th December

Looking for tips and answers to Monday’s Connections instead? You can find them here:

ForbesNEW ‘Connections’ Hints and Answers for Monday 16th DecemberBy Chris Holt

Hello! I hope your week is off to a good start.

This is my last full day of work for the year and I have to admit I’m more than ready for some downtime. Don’t worry, I’ll still bring you this column every day. I will be working on a few other pieces that I intend to cross off my to-do list as well. But other than that, I’m looking forward to relaxing with my loved ones.

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 curious about 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 Tuesday 17 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…

• TISSUE
• BLANKET
• WAX
• PICK
• PULL
• NERVE
• CLAY
• CURVE
• GRASS
• ARTERY
• HARD
• HEART
• DRIVE
• GRIT
• CONSTRUCTION
• AVENUE

And hints for today Connections groups are:

• Yellow group — guts or determination
• Green Group — what Doc Brown says he and the gang don’t need in the final scene of Back to the future
• Blue group — varieties of useful material made from trees
• Purple group – Arthur Ashe, Center, Philippe Chatrier and Rod Laver surfaces

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 — fearlessness
• Green group — road
• Blue group — kind of paper
• Purple group — kind of tennis courts

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 — Fearlessness (GRIT, HEART, NERVE, Pluck)
• Green group — road (ARTERY, AVENUE, DRAG, DRIVE)
• Blue group — paper types (CONSTRUCTION, GRAPH, TISSUE, WAX)
• Purple group – types of tennis courts (carpet, clay, grass, hard)

A perfect game brings me to four wins in a row! Here’s how I managed:

I walked through this grid like nobody’s business. Zero problems here and I must have done it in under 30 seconds.

NERVE and PLUCK opened up the greens for me, while CARPET and GRASS did the same for the purples. CONSTRUCTION and GRAPH then cleared the blues, leaving the yellows for the win.

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 Wednesday’s match if you need them.

PS I am tempted to recommend Back to the future — a perfect but slightly messed up movie — I have a game for you today. You can play this on iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch. It used to be a paid app, but now it’s free and ad-supported.

Galaxy Mix is a spin on Suika gamewhich took the Nintendo Switch – and my downtime – by storm last year. Here you drop different celestial bodies (stars, planets, etc.) into a container. When two matching objects touch each other, they combine into a larger one. The goal is to create a black hole, but apparently only 0.1% percent of players have done this.

There are a few twists on the genre here: you can throw a bomb to get rid of planets that are in your way and shuffle the board by shaking the screen.

This is a game I’ve gone back to again and again this year. I really appreciate the precision of using my watch face to place items before I drop them, but I also find it fun to play on my phone. It’s a safe bet Galaxy Mix will end up on my list of my favorite games in 2024:

Have a nice day! 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.