If you’re looking for the Connections answer for Monday, September 11, 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 11, NYT Connections #92! Scroll to the end if you want some hints (and then the answer) to today’s Connections game.
By the way, 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.
How to play Connections
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.
How to win Connections
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. Below, I’ll give you some oblique hints at today’s Connections answers. And farther down the page, I’ll reveal the themes and the answers. Scroll slowly and take just the hints you need!
Does today’s Connections game require any special knowledge?
There are a lot of references here. If you read books, watch TV, and gamble, you’re ahead of people who don’t.
Hints for the themes in today’s Connections puzzle
Here are some spoiler-free hints for the groupings in today’s Connections:
Yellow category - Getting ready for spooky season.
Green category - Settling in for prime time.
Blue category - Maybe we’re making a trip to the casino?
Purple category - And settling in with a good book.
Does today’s Connections game involve any wordplay?
There’s a category where the tiles we need to select are all parts of titles. The other three categories are still based on things the words straightforwardly represent, but this is definitely one of the trickier Connections puzzles I’ve played.
Ready to hear the answers? Keep scrolling if you want a little more help.
BEWARE: Spoilers follow for today’s Connections puzzle!
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 farther down.)
What are the ambiguous words in today’s Connections?
A TOMBSTONE can be a slab of rock in a graveyard, the 1993 film, or the brand of frozen pizza that advertised constantly between sitcoms when I was a kid.
451 is, famously, the temperature at which paper burns. Fahrenheit 451 is an iconic dystopian novel.
20,000 is the number of leagues Captain Nemo went under the sea.
FIREFLY is the luminescent insect also known as a lightning bug, and also a sci-fi TV series that had one short season in 2002.
What are the categories in today’s Connections?
Yellow: HALLOWEEN DECORATIONS
Green: TV SHOWS
Blue: SLOT MACHINE SYMBOLS
Purple: NUMBERS IN BOOK TITLES
DOUBLE BEWARE: THE SOLUTION IS BELOW
Ready to learn the answers to today’s Connections puzzle? I give them all away below.
What are the yellow words in today’s Connections?
The yellow grouping is considered to be the most straightforward. The theme for today’s yellow group is HALLOWEEN DECORATIONS and the words are: BAT, COBWEB, PUMPKIN, TOMBSTONE
What are the green words in today’s Connections?
The green grouping is supposed to be the second-easiest. The theme for today’s green category is TV SHOWS and the words are: 24, BONES, FIREFLY, WEEDS
What are the blue words in today’s Connections?
The blue grouping is the second-hardest. The theme for today’s blue category is SLOT MACHINE SYMBOLS and the words are: 7, BAR, BELL, CHERRY
What are the purple words in today’s Connections?
The purple grouping is considered to be the hardest. The theme for today’s purple category is NUMBERS IN BOOK TITLES and the words are: 22, 451, 2001, 20,000
How I solved today’s Connections
Okay, so there are numbers and there are Halloween-y words. I also recognize movie and book titles: Firefly, Fahrenheit 451.
I got a hit with numbers in book titles: Fahrenheit 451, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Catch-22, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. That only leaves two numbers, 24 and 7, which you would think go together—but with what?
I was kinda stumped at this point. All I could see were the Halloween words, of which I had too many, but I chose a grouping that could all be decorations: COBWEB, PUMPKIN, BONES, TOMBSTONE. One away. Okay, swap TOMBSTONE (which is also a movie) for BAT (also a good Halloween decoration). Nope, still one away.
Maybe 24 is the movie (based on the show), and 7 refers to Seven? I did those with TOMBSTONE and FIREFLY, but no, that was wrong. (I should have known better than to think 7 and Seven were interchangeable.) Wait—it’s not movies, it’s TV shows. 24, WEEDS, FIREFLY, and BONES. Got that one.
Then I only had four Halloween decorations, so I got those. I was down to the last four tiles, with no clue what they had to do with each other, except that I could see CHERRY tomato and BELL pepper. Turns out they are SLOT MACHINE SYMBOLS.
Connections Puzzle #92 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟨🟩🟨🟨 🟩🟨🟨🟨 🟦🟨🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟦🟦🟦🟦