[Trending News] NYT ‘Connections’ Today: Hints And Answers For Wednesday, February 19

Looking for Tuesday’s Connections hints and answers instead? You can find them here:

ForbesNYT ‘Connections’ Today: Hints And Answers For Tuesday, February 18By Kris Holt

It’s Wednesday, and you know what that means: it’s time for another round of Connections!

“Wednesday” is one of those words that I misspell all the time. It’s right up there with January, February and Microsoft (which I usually write as “Microsfot” on my first attempt). The fact that we pronounce it as Wed-ens-day and not Wed-nes-day is probably why it trips me up so often. It’s a frustrating one!

Before we begin, I’ve learned that Connections answers are starting to show up in AI search results, potentially spoiling the game for people who are looking for hints. That absolutely sucks, and I’m sorry if the game has been spoiled for you as a result. I have three suggestions on how to avoid that:

1. Bookmark my Forbes author page. My Connections hints and answers column is usually published between 2PM and 4PM ET the calendar date before each game. You’ll be able to find it there.
2. If you hate the AI summaries on Google search results like I do, there’s a way around that, at least on Chrome and Firefox. It’s easy to set up, and you can find out how to do it here.
3. Alternatively, you can use this website for AI-free Google Search.

Also, I’ve set up a discussion group for Connections and this column on Discord. You can chat about each game (and other topics) with me and other folks. I’m always interested to find out how other people approach the game, so join us! It’s fun.

It’s also the best way to give me any feedback about the column, especially on the rare(!) occasions that I mess something up.

Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Wedensday (kidding!), February 19, are coming right up.

How To Play Connections

Connections is a free, popular New York Times daily word game. You get a new puzzle at midnight every day. You can play on the NYT website or Games app.

You’re presented with a grid of 16 words. Your task is to arrange them into four groups of four by figuring out the links between them. The groups could be things like items you can click, names for research study participants or words preceded by a body part.

There’s only one solution for each puzzle, and you’ll need to be careful when it comes to words that might fit into more than one category. You can shuffle the words to perhaps help you see links between them.

Each group is color coded. The yellow group is usually the easiest to figure out, blue and green fall in the middle, and the purple group is usually the most difficult one. The purple group often involves wordplay.

Select four words you think go together and press Submit. If you make a guess and you’re incorrect, you’ll lose a life. If you’re close to having a correct group, you might see a message telling you that you’re one word away from getting it right, but you’ll still need to figure out which one to swap.

If you make four mistakes, it’s game over. Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen with the help of some hints, and, if you’re really struggling, today’s Connections answers. As with Wordle and other similar games, it’s easy to share results with your friends on social media and group chats.

If you have an NYT All Access or Games subscription, you can access the publication’s Connections archive. This includes every previous game of Connections, so you can go back and play any of those that you have missed.

Aside from the first 60 games or so, you should be able to find my hints for each grid via Google if you need them! Just click here and add the date of the game for which you need clues or the answers to the search query.

What Are Today’s Connections Hints?

Scroll slowly! Just after the hints for each of today’s Connections groups, I’ll reveal what the groups are without immediately telling you which words go into them.

Today’s 16 words are…

• TICK
• TOCK
• DING
• DOCK
• NICK
• COCK
• PONY
• MOCK
• CHIME
• PIG
• WHARF
• SCRATCH
• LIGHTHOUSE
• CUCKOO
• DENT
• BOARDWALK

And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:

• Yellow group — oh, I do like to be beside the seaside
• Green group — these prevent things from being pristine
• Blue group — heard from a souvenir that has European origins
• Purple group — “bob” and “en” would fit in here

What Are Today’s Connections Groups?

Need some extra help?

Be warned: we’re starting to get into spoiler territory.

Today’s Connections groups are…

• Yellow group — structures by the shore
• Green group — small imperfection
• Blue group — sounds a cuckoo clock makes
• Purple group — _____tail

What Are Today’s Connections Answers?

Spoiler alert! Don’t scroll any further down the page until you’re ready to find out today’s Connections answers.

This is your final warning!

Today’s Connections answers are…

• Yellow group — structures by the shore (BOARDWALK, DOCK, LIGHTHOUSE, WHARF)
• Green group — small imperfection (DENT, DING, NICK, SCRATCH)
• Blue group — sounds a cuckoo clock makes (CHIME, CUCKOO, TICK, TOCK)
• Purple group — _____tail (COCK, MOCK, PIG, PONY)

A threepeat of perfect games extends my overall winning streak to 13 games. Here’s how I fared:

🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩

What a delightful grid this was to drink in. It looked like a nursery rhyme. I don’t think it’s as difficult as it might seem at first glance, thanks to the words in the bottom half.

Even though CHIME and CUCKOO were on the grid, I was skeptical that there would be a group of clock-related words given that TICK and TOCK were placed next to each other. I put that on hold to focus my attention elsewhere.

The greens were easy enough — especially considering that I wrote recently in this column about why we should all embrace imperfections.

I got the yellows fairly quickly too. LIGHTHOUSE didn’t seem like it quite fit with the others, but I gambled and it paid off.

My initial instinct about the blues then proved to be correct. The left the purples for a perfect game. I did not figure out that connection, but I probably should have – not least because there aren’t too many (family friendly) groups that COCK would fit into. It’s fun that the group was essentially two linked pairings, cocktail and mocktail, then pigtail and ponytail.

That’s all there is to it for today’s Connections clues and answers. Be sure to check my blog tomorrow for hints and the solution for Thursday’s game if you need them.

P.S. I’ve recommended a couple of songs by this artist in the past, but folks, I’ve gotta tell ya: I think Billie Eilish is brilliant. She’s arguably the performer of her generation already and she’s still so dang young.

I don’t think I’ve head a bad song from her, but my favorite by far is “Happier Than Ever.” It’s big, brash and not exactly subtle, and the huge-sounding rock section in the second half lies squarely in my native musical sensibilities. Terrific stuff:

Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Call someone you love!

If you’re so inclined, please do follow my blog for more coverage of Connections and other word games and even some video game news, insights and analysis. It helps me out a lot! Also, follow me on Bluesky! It’s fun there.