Having trouble with today’s NYT Connections puzzle? You’re not alone. Are you stumped on a particularly tough category? Maybe you just want to confirm your responses. We have hints and solutions for the Jan. 29, 2025, edition.
Before we get to the puzzle for today, a brief refresher on how NYT Connections works for new people. The game shows players a grid with 16 words. Players have to categorize those words into one of four different groups of four. These groups are also color-coded. Yellow combines the easiest groups. Purple represents questions that most often require some sort of lateral thinking, specific knowledge, or both.
Today’s Puzzle: Beginning With Some Hints
For some light steering without all the spoilers, here are subtly written hints for each category:
Yellow Category: Consider the recent revival trend in the silver screen. 2024 saw the return of a few beloved franchises. What series found new life last year?
Green Category: This one’s all about possession, not the supernatural kind! All of these words express a variant of ownership.
Blue Category: These are things that could be happening while you’re getting those Zs. Some of these might your partner complain about!
Purple Category: Now we are getting interesting Consider a common word that completes each of these terms into common phrases. Hint: It’s where you could live.
[Spoiler Alert: Solutions appear at the end of the post.] (If you’d like to try solving the puzzle first, stop reading here!)
Complete Solutions
Yellow Category: MOVIE SERIES WITH 2024 RELEASES
Alien
Gladiator
Venom
Wicked
This category honors the big franchise revivals that arrived in theaters in 2024. From sci-fi horror to musical adaptations, these series all got new installments or reboots last year.
Green Category: OWNED
Bore
Had
Held
Possessed
Although they may not seem immediately related, these words do all convey a sense of possession or ownership. In this category, bore is a very clever addition, as the word means carry/possess in this context.
Blue Category: THINGS YOU MIGHT DO IN YOUR SLEEP
Dream
Drool
Snore
Talk
We’ve all committed at least one of these nighttime transgressions. From the benign (dreaming) to the mildly humiliating (drooling), they all happen while we’re lost in slumberland.
Purple Category: HOUSE
Full
Gingerbread
Haunted
White
The most difficult category today involves adding “house” to the end of each word. This results in familiar phrases like Full House, Gingerbread House, Haunted House, and White House.
Personal Solving Experience
And as a daily solver of these, I found today’s to be particularly interesting. The Blue Category leaped out first — maybe because my partner constantly reminds me that I talk in my sleep! The Yellow category seemed a natural, particularly for film buffs with an eye on recent releases.
The Green category may appear deceptively easy when all the words fall into place. However, the connection between « bore » and more obvious possession words like « had » and « possessed » requires careful reflection. The Purple category stays true to form. It required the most lateral thinking. It challenges players to come up with words that « house » can follow in common phrases.
