After a string of tricky puzzles, we have an easy one for once! Or at least I thought so. If you’re looking for the Connections answer for Tuesday, October 24, 2023, read on—I’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solutions to all four categories. Along the way, I’ll explain the meanings of the trickier words and we’ll learn how everything fits together. Beware, there are spoilers below for October 24, NYT Connections #135! Read on if you want some hints (and then the answer) to today’s Connections game.
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 farther down the page, I’ll reveal the themes and the answers. Scroll slowly and take just the hints you need!
Nothing too esoteric today! If you watch a lot of nature videos, as my youngest child does, one of the categories will be particularly easy for you.
Here are some definitions of lesser-known words in today’s puzzle:
- A NICHE is a small place that something might fit into. In nature, it means an animal’s place in the ecosystem; in architecture, it’s one of those fancy little cubbies you can put a statue in.
- A BIGWIG is an important person, and yes, the word dates from the 1700s, when formal wear often included a powdered wig—the bigger, the better.
- The meaning of CRANNY is best known from commercials for Thomas’s English Muffins, which boasted numerous “nooks and crannies” to collect melted butter.
Here are some spoiler-free hints for the groupings in today’s Connections:
- Yellow category – Walk with the animals, talk with the animals?
- Green category – You’ll fit right in.
- Blue category – Iconic.
- Purple category – It’s almost poetry.
The purple category is based on the construction of the words themselves, not their meanings. The other three categories are pretty straightforward. As usual, be on the lookout for multiple meanings to each word.
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 farther down.)
- RECESS can be the part of SCHOOL where you leave your TEXTBOOKs behind, but those words don’t go together today. Think, instead, of a concave area; a decorative RECESS in a wall is sometimes known as a NICHE.
- A TEXTBOOK can be a bunch of slices of dead trees from which you learn something; or it can describe the kind of information found therein—as in a doctor easily diagnosing a “TEXTBOOK case” of a disease.
- Something that is RAGTAG can be disheveled, or more often, refer to a mismatched or disorganized group of people. A RAGTAG team might win the championships in a heartwarming sports movie. Anyway, none of that is important today. Think about what RAGTAG has in common with BACKPACK.
What are the categories in today’s Connections?
- Yellow: ANIMAL GROUPS
- Green: SMALL OPENING
- Blue: PARADIGMATIC
- Purple: RHYMING COMPOUND WORDS
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 ANIMAL GROUPS and the words are: COLONY [of ants, perhaps], HERD [of cows? Of course I’ve heard of cows], PRIDE [of lions], SCHOOL [of fish].
The green grouping is supposed to be the second-easiest. The theme for today’s green category is SMALL OPENING and the words are: CRANNY, NICHE, NOOK, RECESS.
The blue grouping is the second-hardest. The theme for today’s blue category is PARADIGMATIC and the words are: CLASSIC, DEFINITIVE, MODEL (as in a “model organism”), TEXTBOOK.
The purple grouping is considered to be the hardest. The theme for today’s purple category is RHYMING COMPOUND WORDS and the words are: BACKPACK, BIGWIG, DOWNTOWN, RAGTAG.
CRANNY can only refer to indentations; I heard the phrase “nooks and crannies” hundreds of times as a kid, as the commercial zoomed in on the texture of an English muffin. Which means the puzzle makers are not going to do anything as obvious as pairing CRANNY with NOOK, right?
So let’s try CRANNY, RECESS, NICHE…I cannot think of another word that goes with these that isn’t NOOK. So, what the heck, let’s go for it. Huh, that worked. 🟩
The rest of the categories came together pretty easily after that. A SCHOOL, COLONY, HERD, and PRIDE are all groups of animals. 🟨 CLASSIC, MODEL, TEXTBOOK, and DEFINITIVE all describe a sort of type specimen of a group. 🟦
Finally, that leaves BIGWIG, RAGTAG, BACKPACK, and DOWNTOWN, all compound words that rhyme with themselves. 🟪
Connections
Puzzle #135
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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!