The Friday edition of NYT Connections arrives with puzzle #971, serving up a grid that rewards insect knowledge and homophone recognition. Today's challenge particularly favors coffee enthusiasts and those who can spot sneaky auditory 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 #971:
CHOW | YEOH | TIGER | DRAGON
FIRE | HAY | HORSE | STRAW
HIGH | REFEREE | BUTTER | CUP
LID | CROSSWALK | STIRRER | CANDY CANE
A seemingly random collection that somehow connects into four perfect categories.
Strategic Hints (No Spoilers Yet)
Yellow Category Nudge: Think about your morning routine and what you might find at a coffee shop counter.
Green Category Clue: Visual patterns that serve functional or decorative purposes across different domains.
Blue Category Hint: These words complete common insect names when paired with a particular suffix.
Purple Category Teaser: Listen carefully, these words sound like common greetings when spoken aloud.
The Full Solutions
Last chance to solve independently: answers below
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Yellow (Items at a coffee station): CUP, LID, STIRRER, STRAW
The easiest category for anyone who frequents coffee shops or office break rooms.
Each item represents a standard component of coffee service, from the vessel itself to the accessories that customize your drink.
Green (Things with stripes): CANDY CANE, CROSSWALK, REFEREE, TIGER
A visual category united by distinctive striped patterns.
The stripes serve different purposes, safety (crosswalk), authority (referee), decoration (candy cane), and natural camouflage (tiger).
Blue (Words before "FLY" in insect names): BUTTER, DRAGON, FIRE, HORSE
This category requires entomological knowledge or familiarity with common insect names.
Each word combines with "fly" to form a recognized insect species: butterfly, dragonfly, firefly, and horsefly.
Purple (Homophones of greetings): CHOW, HAY, HIGH, YEOH
The trickiest category plays on auditory wordplay.
When spoken aloud, these words sound like common greetings: "chow" (ciao), "hay" (hey), "high" (hi), and "yeoh" (yo).
The Verdict
Puzzle #971 registers as moderate difficulty with a sting in the tail.
Yellow falls quickly for anyone who recognizes coffee station essentials, while green requires thinking about visual patterns across different contexts.
Blue separates the entomology enthusiasts from the casual observers.
Purple, predictably, is the streak-ender, that homophone trick won't reveal itself without serious auditory lateral thinking.
The real trap lies in words like "straw" and "hay" that could mislead solvers toward agricultural themes, or "tiger" and "dragon" that might suggest mythical creatures.
"Yeoh" presents the biggest challenge, requiring players to think beyond standard vocabulary to recognize its phonetic similarity to "yo."
Reset and Repeat
Tomorrow's puzzle drops at midnight in your timezone.
Until then, reflect on today's performance: did you spot the insect connections or get tripped up by the homophones?
The beauty lies not in perfection but in training your brain to spot these hidden patterns.
For now, puzzle #971 is solved.
See you at midnight for round #972.
