The Monday edition of NYT Connections arrives with puzzle #925, serving up a grid that rewards pattern recognition and lateral thinking. Today's challenge particularly favors those who can spot sneaky wordplay and thematic clusters across seemingly disparate terms.
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 #925:
RUSH | PIN | PLAYING | LATER
GREETING | CYA | RASH | COMING
WAVE | BUSINESS | FUTURE | BROW
WHIT | FOLLOWING | MEMBERSHIP | SURGE
A seemingly random collection that somehow connects into four perfect categories.
Strategic Hints (No Spoilers Yet)
Blue Category Nudge: Think about different types of cards you might carry in your wallet or use for entertainment.
Green Category Clue: These words all relate to what happens after the present moment.
Yellow Category Hint: Consider sudden, intense occurrences or bursts of activity.
Purple Category Teaser: Look for colors that have lost their final letter, creating new words with different meanings.
The Full Solutions
Last chance to solve independently: answers below
Blue (Types of Card): BUSINESS, GREETING, MEMBERSHIP, PLAYING
These four words represent distinct categories of cards used in various contexts. BUSINESS cards facilitate professional networking, GREETING cards convey personal sentiments, MEMBERSHIP cards grant access to organizations or services, and PLAYING cards form the basis of countless games.
The connection is straightforward once you recognize the "card" suffix or association, though PLAYING might initially mislead solvers toward entertainment rather than physical cards.
Green (Next): COMING, FOLLOWING, FUTURE, LATER
This temporal category groups words that all reference what comes after the present. COMING and FOLLOWING both describe immediate succession, while FUTURE and LATER extend further ahead on the timeline.
The cleverness here lies in how these words can function as adjectives, nouns, or adverbs depending on context, creating potential confusion with other grammatical categories.
Yellow (Sudden Spate): RASH, RUSH, SURGE, WAVE
These four words describe abrupt, intense occurrences or bursts. A RASH can refer to both a skin condition and a sudden outbreak of something negative.
RUSH implies hurried movement or a sudden demand. SURGE suggests a powerful forward movement or increase.
WAVE captures both oceanic motion and sudden emotional or physical experiences. The connection is semantic rather than grammatical, requiring solvers to think about intensity and suddenness.
Purple (Colors Missing Last Letter): BROW, CYA, PIN, WHIT
This is the puzzle's trickiest category, requiring solvers to recognize colors that have lost their final letter. BROW comes from "brown" minus the "n," CYA from "cyan" minus the "n," PIN from "pink" minus the "k," and WHIT from "white" minus the "e." This category exemplifies Connections at its most devious - the words have legitimate meanings of their own (BROW as forehead, CYA as "see ya," PIN as fastener, WHIT as small amount), making the color connection far from obvious.
The Verdict
Puzzle #925 registers as moderate difficulty with a sting in the tail. Blue falls quickly for anyone who recognizes card types, while green requires thinking about temporal relationships.
Yellow separates those who can spot semantic patterns from those who get stuck on surface meanings. Purple, predictably, is the streak-ender - that color-letter trick won't reveal itself without serious lateral thinking.
The real trap lies in words like "RUSH" and "WAVE," which could easily be mistaken for the green temporal category, and "PIN" and "WHIT," which have such strong independent meanings that their color origins become nearly invisible. "CYA" as "cyan" minus "n" is particularly devious, as the slang abbreviation overshadows its color connection completely.
Reset and Repeat
Tomorrow's puzzle drops at midnight in your timezone. Until then, reflect on today's performance: did you spot the card types immediately, or did you get tangled in the temporal and sudden spate categories?
The beauty lies not in perfection but in training your brain to spot these hidden patterns.
For now, puzzle #925 is solved. See you at midnight for round #926.
