NYT Connections hints and answers for Monday, October 20 (game #862)

4 hours ago 9

NYT Connections homescreen on a phone, on a purple background

(Image credit: New York Times)

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Sunday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Sunday, October 19 (game #861).

Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints.

What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc's Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Connections today (game #862) - today's words

NYT Connections hints for game 862 on a purple background

Today's NYT Connections words are…

K
POP
DEMON
HUNTER
COMPLEX
AS
CENTAUR
BE
BIG BEAR
BUGBEAR
UNI
HANG-UP
LYRE
CAPRI

NYT Connections today (game #862) - hint #1 - group hints

What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?

YELLOW: Bothered by something
GREEN: In the stars
BLUE: Chemical elements
PURPLE: Add a word that rhymes with “torn”

Need more clues?

We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…

NYT Connections today (game #862) - hint #2 - group answers

What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?

YELLOW: AFFLICTION
GREEN: REPRESENTED BY CONSTELLATIONS
BLUE: PERIODIC TABLE SYMBOLS
PURPLE: ____CORN

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Connections today (game #862) - the answers

NYT Connections answers for game 862 on a purple background

The answers to today's Connections, game #862, are…

YELLOW: AFFLICTION BUGBEAR, COMPLEX, DEMON, HANG-UP
GREEN: REPRESENTED BY CONSTELLATIONS BIG BEAR, CENTAUR, HUNTER, LYRE
BLUE: PERIODIC TABLE SYMBOLS AS, BE, I, K
PURPLE: ____CORN A, CAPRI, POP, UNI

My rating: Hard
My score: 1 mistake

It was extraordinarily tempting to connect K, POP, DEMON and HUNTER (Connections has done groups like this before where you think it’s too obvious) but I stopped before taking the plunge.

I surprised myself by getting the four tiles that made up AFFLICTION, but immediately thought: if that is the yellow/easiest group then what chance do I have of getting through this round?

Seeing no connections from the remaining 12 tiles and thrown by the short words, I shuffled the tiles until something made sense. Because they all sounded vaguely mythical, I put together CENTAUR, CAPRI, LYRE, and HUNTER – which gave me a mistake, but also a “one away”.

Not really knowing what I was doing, I took out CAPRI and replaced it with BIG BEAR. Then, in the recesses of my memory I remembered that K (potassium) and AS (arsenic) were both periodic table symbols and guessed that I and BE were too.

And thus, I somehow fluked my way through this game and then kicked myself after the purple reveal. Kudos if it was all obvious to you.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Sunday, October 19, game #861)

YELLOW: TOPPLE FALL, SPILL, TUMBLE, WIPEOUT
GREEN: PARTS OF A BOOK COVER, JACKET, LEAVES, SPINE
BLUE: LOSE IT, WITH "OUT" BUG, FLIP, FREAK, WIG
PURPLE: CHOCOLATE BARS PLUS A LETTER CRUNCHY, DOVER, MARSH, SKORT

What is NYT Connections?

NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.

On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.

It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.

It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

Johnny is a freelance pop culture journalist who has been writing about the internet, music, football and famous people since the iPhone was just a twinkle in Steve Jobs' eye. Previously known by the pseudonym the Pop Detective, his journalistic career began making up stories about Madonna's addiction to sausage rolls (this is not true by the way). A man of few talents, his career is rich and various and includes the highs of interviewing Elton John and Blur; and the lows of interviewing Right Said Fred, appearing on a Channel 5 documentary about Peter Kay, and fact-checking the instruction manual for a German cooker. Somehow still affording to live in North London he is at his happiest riding his bicycle and shouting at pigeons.

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