NYT Connections Hints for March 12

This article provides hints and answers for the NYT Connections game for Wednesday, March 12th. Connections is a daily word game where players must group 16 words into four categories of four based on shared connections. The game is available on the NYT website or Games app.

NYT Connections has quickly gained popularity, standing alongside Wordle and The Mini Crossword as a daily ritual for many. The game is designed to test players’ ability to spot common links among seemingly unrelated words. It offers a fresh set of 16 words each day, and players must sort these into four groups of four words each, all connected by a hidden theme.

The article offers a Discord discussion group for Connections enthusiasts. It gives a breakdown of how to play the game, noting that the groups are color-coded by difficulty (yellow being easiest, purple being most difficult), and incorrect guesses result in lost lives. Shuffling the words is a suggested strategy. An NYT All Access or Games subscription allows access to the Connections archive.

In NYT Connections, the key is to identify shared threads among four words. These connections may range from book titles, musical instruments, to items made from the same material or people from the same profession. Though multiple groupings may appear possible, only one correct set exists for each group.

Players can shuffle words on the board to identify patterns more easily. To make the game dynamic, categories are color-coded according to difficulty, yellow (easiest), green, blue, and purple (hardest). Players are allowed up to four mistakes before the game ends. Much like Wordle, scores and outcomes can be shared on social media.

Hints for March 12th Game

The article then provides hints for the March 12th game. The 16 words are: ORANGE, KETCHUP, ELMO, COTTON, SUGAR, EYE, ROSE, MONTH, EGGS, ROCK, PURPLE, BUTTER, FLOUR, CARDINAL, JOHN, and SILVER. The hints are:

• Yellow group: bake ’em into a sweet treat
• Green group: like a fire truck or paprika
• Blue group: these sound like nothing else (probably)
• Purple group: don’t say the name of this “man” five times in front of a mirror

Solutions for March 12th Game

The solutions reveal the groups:

• Yellow: Ingredients in classic pound cake (BUTTER, EGGS, FLOUR, SUGAR)
• Green: Things that are red (CARDINAL, ELMO, KETCHUP, ROSE)
• Blue: Words said to have no exact rhymes (MONTH, ORANGE, PURPLE, SILVER)
• Purple: _____ candy (COTTON, EYE, JOHN, ROCK)

Gameplay Experience

The author details their own gameplay experience, highlighting the difficulty of the blue and purple categories and using a process of elimination to eventually solve the puzzle. The article concludes with a recommendation for a Limmy comedy sketch.

Understanding the Game

Connections is one of the most popular New York Times word games that’s captured the public’s attention. The game is all about finding the “common threads between words.”

The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications’ Games section. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices.

How to Play

Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there’s only one correct answer.

If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.

Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple.