There’s a hint for every one of today’s Connections groups ready and waiting for you just below, giving you just the nudge you need to win. Or if you’re running out of guesses and need a guaranteed save, hop on over to the answers to the September 10 (#91) puzzle. It’s entirely up to you.

Today’s Connections went from smooth to what felt like a full stop at the halfway point, the link between remaining words something of a mystery to me. They would’ve probably stayed that way too if I hadn’t had enough spare guesses remaining to puzzle out that final eight—that was a close one.

NYT Connections hint today: Sunday, September 10

Yellow: These are all animals, specifically the sort you’re most likely to see in a zoo. Unless you’re reading this from the middle of a rainforest, anyway.

Green: Tables, chairs, and even the tallest buildings all have something along these lines on them. You can’t have a top without a…?

Blue: There’s a good chance you know the words to at least one song from these seemingly unrelated words. Think of spotlights and stages.

Purple: Salty air, vast expanses of water, and sandy shorelines connect these four. There’s just one word missing from all of them.  

Don’t scroll any further until you’re ready for the full answers!

NYT Connections answer today: Saturday, September 9 (90)

Yellow: Anaconda, Capybara, Jaguar, Toucan (Amazon animals)

Green: Base, Bottom, Foot, Foundation (Lowest point)

Blue: Company, Grease, Hair, Rent (Musicals)

Purple: Change, Cucumber, Legs, Lion (Sea ____)

More about the New York Times’ Connections puzzle game

Connections is the NYT’s latest popular puzzle game where you have to find the common thread that ties four seemingly unrelated words together. Can you find all four increasingly challenging groups of words before you make four mistakes? Don’t forget: every day only has one solution even if some words look like they could belong to more than one group, and you can (and should) shuffle the grid as many times as you need to. It can help jog your brain into reading the words in a different way.

If you enjoy Connections, you should check out the board game Codenames. It’s a popular party game that tasks players with using clues to guess certain words from a grid. As in Connections, the heart of the game lies in how many different possible interpretations the words could have. Connections also clearly owes a debt to Wordle, the hit puzzle game that the New York Times bought in 2022. Perhaps most obvious is the way it uses colored emojis to let you share the results of your puzzle with other players on social media: 

Connections
Puzzle #80

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Each color corresponds to one grouping of four words; a row with mixed colors shows you incorrectly guessed one or more words in a group that didn’t totally match. The rows also show what order you solved the Connections puzzle in. The rows aren’t all created equal: the New York Times ranks them from “straightforward” to “tricky” starting with yellow and progressing to purple.

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Want to show up your Connections friends or just challenge yourself? Try to start by identifying the purple words first and nailing them with your very first guess!