The Tuesday edition of NYT Connections arrives with puzzle #968, serving up a grid that rewards golf knowledge and culinary vocabulary. Today's challenge particularly favors sports enthusiasts and those who can spot sneaky memory-related wordplay.
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 #968:
CARD | WOOD | FOAM | DICE
BOARD | CUBE | QUARTER | HOLE
HASH | HOUSE | IRON | MINCE
WEDGE | LANE | LODGE | PUTTER
A seemingly random collection that somehow connects into four perfect categories.
Strategic Hints (No Spoilers Yet)
Yellow Category Nudge: Think about food preparation techniques that involve cutting or chopping.
Green Category Clue: Consider different ways to describe providing accommodation or shelter.
Blue Category Hint: Focus on equipment used in a specific sport, particularly the tools for different types of shots.
Purple Category Teaser: Look for words that can follow "memory" to create common phrases or expressions.
The Full Solutions
Last chance to solve independently: answers below
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Blue (Kinds of golf clubs): IRON, PUTTER, WEDGE, WOOD
These four words represent specific types of golf clubs used for different shots on the course.
Woods are for long-distance drives, irons for mid-range shots, wedges for short approach shots, and putters for rolling the ball on the green.
Green (Provide with a place to stay): BOARD, HOUSE, LODGE, QUARTER
Each of these verbs can mean to provide someone with accommodation or shelter.
You can board someone in your home, house guests, lodge visitors, or quarter troops - all variations on the theme of giving someone a place to stay.
Yellow (Cut into pieces): CUBE, DICE, HASH, MINCE
These are all culinary terms for cutting food into smaller pieces.
Cube means to cut into cube-shaped pieces, dice into small cubes, hash into irregular pieces, and mince into very fine pieces.
Purple (Memory ____): CARD, FOAM, HOLE, LANE
These words complete the phrases "memory card," "memory foam," "memory hole," and "memory lane."
Memory card refers to digital storage, memory foam to a type of mattress material, memory hole to Orwellian erasure of information, and memory lane to nostalgic recollection.
The Verdict
Puzzle #968 registers as moderate difficulty with a sting in the tail.
Yellow falls quickly for anyone who recognizes culinary cutting terms, while green requires thinking about accommodation vocabulary.
Blue separates the golf enthusiasts from the casual observers.
Purple, predictably, is the streak-ender, that memory-related phrase trick won't reveal itself without serious lateral thinking.
The real trap lies in words like "wood" and "iron" that could mislead solvers into thinking about materials rather than golf clubs, and "quarter" that might suggest currency or time rather than accommodation.
"Lane" could easily be mistaken for bowling or driving rather than completing "memory lane."
Reset and Repeat
Tomorrow's puzzle drops at midnight in your timezone.
Until then, reflect on today's performance: did golf knowledge give you an edge, or did the memory phrases trip you up?
The beauty lies not in perfection but in training your brain to spot these hidden patterns.
For now, puzzle #968 is solved.
See you at midnight for round #969.
