NYT ‘Connections’ September 23: Clues and Answers for Game #470

Newsweek is back on hand to help with another round of hints and solutions for Monday’s Connections game from The New York Times.

Each daily puzzle consists of 16 words which must be separated into four categories. Players must identify the common thread between each category: yellow, green, blue, and purple. If you need an example, one previous puzzle saw the words “cater,” “host,” “plan” and “throw” joined together to make the category “help put on a party.”

Players can sometimes find themselves tricked by the fact that words can fit into two categories. Even if it may be designed to confuse the player, each group can only have four unique words.

The difficulty increases according to color, with yellow being the most straightforward, followed by green, then blue and finally purple, which is considered the most difficult, and is usually the most abstract.

The game’s editor, Wyna Liu of The New York Times, said there are varying levels of difficulty between the categories given each day.

“Some categories might be defined by their use of wordplay—palindromes, homophones, adding or dropping letters and words —rather than the literal meanings of the words on the cards. I saw three areas of potential difficulty that could be adjusted: the familiarity of the words, the ambiguity of their categorization and the variety of the wordplay,” she said.

When asked what tips she can provide players, Liu said: “One suggestion that may help save some guesses is if you start selecting cards and notice that there are five or more that belong to that category, try pivoting to a different category before making that first guess.”

Below are some tips to help you keep your Connections winning streak—but be warned: scroll carefully if you want to figure out the answers without any spoilers.

Connections #470 Clues for Monday, September 23

Yellow: Perhaps difficult to walk on or to touch.

Green: Most often found in your backyard.

Blue: A famous one of two.

Purple: A word that comes before another.

Connections #470 Answers for Monday, September 23

Yellow category: “NOT SMOOTH, AS TERRAIN”

Yellow words: Bumpy, rough, rugged, uneven

Green: “BIT OF LAND FOR GROWING”

Green words: Bed, parcel, patch, plot

Blue: “MEMBER OF CARTOON DUO”

Blue words: Chip, rocky, scratchy, stitch

Purple: “___ PARK”

Purple words: Amusement, national, parallel, south

Did you guess the answers correctly? If so, congratulations. If not, commiserations – you’ll be pleased to know there will be another opportunity to crack the puzzle tomorrow.

Connections is released at midnight in your local time zone and Newsweek will be back with another round of hints and tips for each new game.