Posted by If you’re looking for the Connections answer for Saturday, September 30, 2023, read on—I’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solutions to all four categories. Beware, there are spoilers below for September 30, NYT Connections #111! Read on if you want some hints (and then the answer) to today’s Connections game. By the way, we’ve moved the basic “how to play” instructions to the very end of the page—just a heads up in case you’re used to scrolling down a few screens when you open this post.
If you want an easy way to come back to our Connections hints every day, bookmark this page. You can also find our past hints there as well, in case you want to know what you missed in a previous puzzle.
Below, I’ll give you some oblique hints at today’s Connections answers. And further down the page, I’ll reveal the themes and the answers. Scroll slowly and take just the hints you need!
Nothing too unusual! Two of the categories relate to hobbies that my grandparents had, but those hobbies are still common today and not at all obscure.
Here are some spoiler-free hints for the groupings in today’s Connections:
Yellow category – Play with friends, indoors.
Green category – Play with friends, outdoors.
Blue category – When your friends aren’t around.
Purple category – When one of the friends doesn’t show up.
Nope, all pretty straightforward today.
Ready to hear the answers? Keep scrolling if you want a little more help.
We’re about to give away some of the answers. Scroll slowly if you don’t want the whole thing spoiled. (The full solution is a bit further down.)
A CLUB can be a golf club—but that’s not what we want today. A CLUB can also mean a group of people who unite for a common purpose, an instrument to whack people with, or that symbol in a deck of cards. That symbol is actually related to a CLUB as in the whacking stick; in various countries and deck designs, it is a club, wand, stick, or baton.
A WEDGE can be a shape, a shoe, a salad, or a golf club. This time you do want to think about the golf club meaning.
PINE can be a tree or the wood you get from it; but it’s also a verb meaning to want something desperately—usually love—that you cannot obtain.
HEART ACHE describes a similar feeling, but those two words do not go together today.
What are the categories in today’s Connections?
Yellow: PLAYING CARD SUITS
Green: GOLF CLUBS
Blue: YEARN
Purple: INSUFFICIENT
Ready to learn the answers to today’s Connections puzzle? I give them all away below.
The yellow grouping is considered to be the most straightforward. The theme for today’s yellow group is PLAYING CARD SUITS and the words are: CLUB, DIAMOND, HEART, SPADE.
The green grouping is supposed to be the second-easiest. The theme for today’s green category is GOLF CLUBS and the words are: IRON, PUTTER, WEDGE, WOOD.
The blue grouping is the second-hardest. The theme for today’s blue category is YEARN and the words are: ACHE, LONG, PINE, THIRST.
The purple grouping is considered to be the hardest. The theme for today’s purple category is INSUFFICIENT and the words are: LOW, SHORT, SHY, WANTING.
This was one of my easier solves lately, and what made it easy was reminding myself to stay on track. Although I’ve quibbled with some of the groupings in the past, usually the puzzle constructor makes sure that the things in the group truly match. Not just on vibes, but on grammar and taxonomy as well.
So CLUB was not going to be in a category with WOOD, IRON, and PUTTER. You can’t (shouldn’t!) have the overall concept of golf clubs on the same level as specific types of golf clubs. WEDGE is the one that fills out that category.
Which means CLUB is now available to go with DIAMOND, HEART, and SPADE for suits of cards.
I thought I had another one in the bag with ACHE, LONG, PINE, and THIRST, but then realized WANTING could go with them. Stay on track! We wouldn’t have a gerund (-ing) alongside plain old verbs. I went with my initial guess, and it was right.
That left WANTING, LOW, SHY, and SHORT. How could a gerund fit here? Only if it’s being used as an adjective. To find something WANTING is to note that it’s missing something—as in when you show up a day late and a dollar SHORT, or you’re a few bricks SHY of a load.
I have a full guide to playing Connections, but here’s a refresher on the rules:
First, find the Connections game either on the New York Times website or in their Crossword app. You’ll see a game board with 16 tiles, each with one word or phrase. Your job is to select a group of four tiles that have something in common. Often they are all the same type of thing (for example: RAIN, SLEET, HAIL, and SNOW are all types of wet weather) but sometimes there is wordplay involved (for example, BUCKET, GUEST, TOP TEN, and WISH are all types of lists: bucket list, guest list, and so on).
Select four items and hit the Submit button. If you guessed correctly, the category and color will be revealed. (Yellow is easiest, followed by green, then blue, then purple.) If your guess was incorrect, you’ll get a chance to try again.
You win when you’ve correctly identified all four groups. But if you make four mistakes before you finish, the game ends and the answers are revealed.
The most important thing to know to win Connections is that the groupings are designed to be tricky. Expect to see overlapping groups. For example, one puzzle seemed to include six breakfast foods: BACON, EGG, PANCAKE, OMELET, WAFFLE, and CEREAL. But BACON turned out to be part of a group of painters along with CLOSE, MUNCH, and WHISTLER, and EGG was in a group of things that come by the dozen (along with JUROR, ROSE, and MONTH). So don’t hit “submit” until you’ve confirmed that your group of four contains only those four things.
If you’re stuck, another strategy is to look at the words that seem to have no connection to the others. If all that comes to mind when you see WHISTLER is the painting nicknamed “Whistler’s Mother,” you might be on to something. When I solved that one, I ended up googling whether there was a painter named Close, because Close didn’t fit any of the obvious themes, either.
Another way to win when you’re stuck is, obviously, to read a few helpful hints–which is why we share these pointers every day. Check back tomorrow for the next puzzle!
Beth Skwarecki is Lifehacker’s Senior Health Editor. She has a bachelor’s degree in biology, has written two books, and is a certified personal trainer. She’s been writing about health, fitness, and science for over a decade, and can front squat 225 pounds.
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