The Friday edition of NYT Connections arrives with puzzle #1125, serving up a grid that tests your knowledge of smartphone settings, dessert menus, and 1980s synth-pop. Today's challenge particularly favors music historians and anyone who's ever fumbled with a hotel room's "do not disturb" sign.
What Makes Connections Tick
For newcomers, NYT Connections presents 16 words that must be sorted into four thematic groups of four. The twist? You're limited to four mistakes, and the color-coded difficulty system (yellow being easiest, purple being trickiest) means surface-level connections often mislead.
Since its June 2023 launch, Connections has carved out its niche in the Times' puzzle ecosystem, standing alongside Wordle and the crossword as a daily ritual for millions of players worldwide. The game's genius lies in its red herrings, words that could fit multiple categories but belong in only one.
Today's Grid at a Glance
Here are the 16 words staring back at you in puzzle #1125:
OUTKAST | DEPECHE MODE | FRESH-BAKED | BALL GOWN
DO NOT DISTURB | À LA MODE | STRIKE A POSE | AIRPLANE MODE
ERASURE | SAFE MODE | DECADENT | NEW ORDER
HOTSPOT | PET SHOP BOYS | MOLTEN | LOCATION SERVICES
A seemingly random collection that somehow connects into four perfect categories.
Strategic Hints (No Spoilers Yet)
Yellow Category Nudge: Think about the toggles and switches you fiddle with when your phone is acting up or you need some quiet.
Green Category Clue: These words belong on a menu right after the main course, preferably before the coffee arrives.
Blue Category Hint: If you owned a Walkman in the 1980s, you probably had cassettes from at least two of these acts, all British, all electronic.
Purple Category Teaser: Each of these words shares something with a baseball umpire's vocabulary, think about what gets shouted during a play.
The Full Solutions
Last chance to solve independently: answers below
---
---
---
---
---
Yellow (Smartphone Settings): AIRPLANE MODE, DO NOT DISTURB, HOTSPOT, LOCATION SERVICES
These four are the bread and butter of your phone's control center. AIRPLANE MODE kills your signal at 30,000 feet, DO NOT DISTURB silences the buzzers, HOTSPOT turns your phone into a Wi-Fi beacon, and LOCATION SERVICES lets apps know exactly where you are.
Green (Dessert Menu Descriptors): DECADENT, FRESH-BAKED, MOLTEN, À LA MODE
These are the words that make you order dessert even when you're full. DECADENT promises guilt in the best way, FRESH-BAKED signals warmth from the oven, MOLTEN means that lava cake center is ready to ooze, and À LA MODE is French for "with ice cream."
Blue ('80s Synth-Pop Bands): DEPECHE MODE, ERASURE, NEW ORDER, PET SHOP BOYS
A straight shot of 1980s British synth-pop royalty. DEPECHE MODE defined the dark electronic sound, ERASURE brought the campy pop hooks, NEW ORDER emerged from Joy Division's ashes to pioneer dance-rock, and PET SHOP BOYS delivered immaculate synth-pop with a theatrical flair.
Purple (Starting With Baseball Calls): BALL GOWN, OUTKAST, SAFE MODE, STRIKE A POSE
The trickiest category by design. Each word or phrase starts with a baseball umpire's call, BALL, OUT, SAFE, and STRIKE, followed by a second word that completes a completely unrelated term. BALL GOWN has nothing to do with baseball, but BALL? That's call one. OUTKAST is a hip-hop duo, but OUT is call two. SAFE MODE is a phone setting, but SAFE is call three. STRIKE A POSE is a voguing command, but STRIKE is call four.
The Verdict
Puzzle #1125 registers as moderate difficulty with a sting in the tail. Yellow falls quickly for anyone who's ever dug through their phone settings, while Green requires thinking about the words restaurants use to upsell you on dessert.
Blue separates the 1980s music fans from the Spotify-playlist generation. Purple, predictably, is the streak-ender, that baseball umpire wordplay won't reveal itself without serious lateral thinking.
The real trap here is SAFE MODE, which could easily land in the Yellow (Smartphone Settings) category alongside AIRPLANE MODE and DO NOT DISTURB. That misdirection is deliberate, the puzzle designers know you'll see "MODE" in multiple answers and try to cluster them together, only to find SAFE MODE belongs to a completely different trick.
Reset and Repeat
Tomorrow's puzzle drops at midnight in your timezone. Until then, reflect on today's performance: did you nail the synth-pop bands or get tripped up by the dessert descriptors?
The beauty lies not in perfection but in training your brain to spot these hidden patterns.
For now, puzzle #1125 is solved. See you at midnight for round #1126.
