Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle has a fun mix of categories, especially if you follow the career of a certain popular actor. You know the one. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Not going down.

Green group hint: Sticks out.

Blue group hint: He starred in Big, too.

Purple group hint: Common toothpaste flavor.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Uptick.

Green group: Protuberance.

Blue group: Tom Hanks roles.

Purple group: Words before “mint.”

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is uptick. The four answers are hike, jump, rise and spike.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is protuberance. The four answers are bump, hump, lump and mound.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is Tom Hanks roles. The four answers are Gump, Phillips, Sully and Woody.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is words before “mint.” The four answers are breath, junior, pepper and spear.

Toughest Connections puzzles

We’ve made a note of some of the toughest Connections puzzles so far. Maybe they’ll help you see patterns in future puzzles.

#5: Included “things you can set,” such as mood, record, table and volleyball.

#4: Included “one in a dozen,” such as egg, juror, month and rose.

#3: Included “streets on screen,” such as Elm, Fear, Jump and Sesame.

#2: Included “power ___” such as nap, plant, Ranger and trip.

#1: Included “things that can run,” such as candidate, faucet, mascara and nose.