Looking for the most recent NYT Connections puzzle answers? CNET publishes daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

In Connections, you look at a grid of 16 words and pick four words that have a connection to each other. You do this four times until all 16 words in the puzzle are grouped. The tough part is that Times associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu chooses words that could fit in multiple groups. The obvious guess — hey! Those are four animals! — is almost always going to be wrong. I’ve compiled my favorite tips for Connections if you need a boost.

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 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.

The purple category in today’s NYT Connections puzzle is just nuts. You don’t even want to know how many times I had to read the category name to try and figure out what the Times editors were even trying to say. I’m willing to bet no one will get it unless those four words are the only four left. Read on for hints and today’s Connections answers.

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: How they grow.

Green group hint: Maybe a pearl?

Blue group hint: Vroom-vroom!

Purple group hint: Look for letter patterns. This one’s a toughie.

Read more: We Need to Talk About That Doggone Connections Puzzle

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Things with stalks.

Green group: Oyster condiments.

Blue group: Dodge models.

Purple group: Three letters plus repeated trigrams.

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is things with stalks.

The four answers are bamboo, celery, corn and wheat.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is oyster condiments.

The four answers are horseradish, lemon, mignonette and Tabasco.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is Dodge models.

The four answers are Challenger, Charger, Durango and Viper.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is three letters plus repeated trigrams. (By “trigrams,” they’re referring to three letters that repeat in the same word. In the four answers below, those letters are ANS, HUA, SES and ING.)

The four answers are Arkansans (three letters are ARK, repeated trigram is ANS), Chihuahua (three letters are CHI, repeated trigram is HUA), possesses (three letters are POS, repeated trigram is SES) and springing (three letters are SPR, repeated trigram is ING).

CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of “Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the ’70s and ’80s,” as well as “The Totally Sweet ’90s.” She’s been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She’s Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she’ll be first in line.

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