Today’s Connections Hints & Answers For January 12, 2025 (Puzzle #581)

If you need an extra tip or two to finish today’s Connections puzzle, you are in the right place. Today’s puzzle felt a little weird to me, not so difficult that it was impossible but tricky enough that I stared at it for a few minutes before getting anything right. There are a lot of potential problem spots, and some fun words as well to balance it out. Taken together, it makes for a challenging but amusing experience as you finish out the puzzle.

If you want to try a different type of word puzzle, you should check out the NYT’s Wordle puzzle. It is quite popular now, and it is even an essential part of solving other puzzles. In this puzzle, you will be attempting to complete a word. You get 6 chances to guess the right word, which will be hinted at based on what letters are left and which ones are in the right places. With enough hints, the word should be obvious if you have done everything right.

Today’s Connections Category Hints

JANUARY 12 #581

To finish off the puzzle, you will likely need a few hints. There’s one category that is extremely close to the first one but is not the real category. That makes it easy to waste guesses on, but harder to figure out what you are doing wrong. There are also some things that many people may not be aware of at this point, and a few things that all share something in common but are not in the same category. To help you sort that out, here are four clues:

• One category is about things that are made up
• One category is about words used to get someone’s attention
• One category is about four things that could all be used on the same device
• One category is about four things that share a physical characteristic, but not necessarily in the way people would think

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If you are still struggling to figure out the rest of the puzzle, you can use the category names to do so.

	FABRICATION
	WOO
	CLASSIC ATARI GAMES
	THINGS FEATURING TAILS

Today’s Connections Answers

JANUARY 12 #581

Yellow Answers: Revealed & Explained

This category is all about things that are made up, but whereas the word “fabrication” typically means lying in many contexts, it actually just means something that has been made. The other issue with this category is that 3 of the words are genres of literature, and ROMANCE is a 4th word that fits in the same category. Without more context, it would be very easy to put these four together and not know what to do with them when the guess fails. Recognizing that INVENTION and FICTION go together might be difficult as well.

Green Answers: Revealed & Explained

This one is a fun category once you have separated ROMANCE from the other genres. I do like the word “woo” quite a bit, but CHARM and COURT are nice as well. It makes it sound nice and antique in a way, and it’s a quaint word. The category itself does not have many pitfalls, except for ROMANCE looking like it is the genre, but hopefully, you will have solved that problem first before you get here. Otherwise, you will have to PURSUE the right answers for this category.

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Blue Answers: Revealed & Explained

With this category, it is one of the ones that if you aren’t aware of these classics, you aren’t going to be able to get it. If you recognize just a portion of them, you might pair them with SONIC THE HEDGEHOG instead. FAIRY TALE is also a video game, so there are options if you don’t recognize all four of the Atari-specific ones. The last category is very odd as well, which doesn’t help separate the other one out without having the more specific knowledge to both know that they are all games and all on one console.

Purple Answers: Revealed & Explained

This last one felt odd. Some of them make sense but COIN TOSS does not make as much sense to me. I understand that there is a heads and tails side to the coin itself. I think that’s the main issue, as I think it would make more sense if it was just the word “coin” and not the full phrase. A toss only has a tail 50% of the time. I’m not sure why it bothers me, but it does. It is something that happens quite often in Connections really.

Other Games Like Connections

If you still want to play a different puzzle today, there are plenty of options in the box below.

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Released

June 12, 2023

Developer(s)

The New York Times Company

Publisher(s)

The New York Times Company

ESRB

e

Platform(s)

Web Browser
, Mobile