NYT Connections hints and answers for Tuesday, January 6 (game #940)

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Monday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Monday, January 5 (game #939).

Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints.

What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc's Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Connections today (game #940) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• PARTY
• BOAT
• QUARTERS
• QUADS
• CLEAR
• BALLOON
• FLUSH
• STUFFED
• RICH
• PACK
• PAD
• DEEP
• FLAT
• FULL
• STRAIGHT
• DIGS

NYT Connections today (game #940) - hint #1 - group hints

What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: Small home
• GREEN: Velvety vocals
• BLUE: Hold ‘em
• PURPLE: Add a word for beasts

Need more clues?

We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…

NYT Connections today (game #940) - hint #2 - group answers

What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: APARTMENT
• GREEN: SONOROUS
• BLUE: POKER HANDS, FAMILIARLY
• PURPLE: _____ ANIMAL

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Connections today (game #940) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #940, are…

• YELLOW: APARTMENT DIGS, FLAT, PAD, QUARTERS
• GREEN: SONOROUS CLEAR, DEEP, FULL, RICH
• BLUE: POKER HANDS, FAMILIARLY BOAT, FLUSH, QUADS, STRAIGHT
• PURPLE: _____ ANIMAL BALLOON, PACK, PARTY, STUFFED

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 1 mistake

Today I convinced myself that there was either a group of carpentry terms (STRAIGHT, FLUSH, QUARTERS, PACK) or a group of words that meant you had money in your pockets (FLUSH, RICH, STUFFED, DEEP).

I went for the latter, but the error helped me move my attention elsewhere and I correctly connected the many types of APARTMENT.

Getting the purple group early was a nice surprise. I had a feeling there would be one group of added words and after deciding BALLOON and PARTY were linked by the word animal I found two others I was less convinced by and took the gamble.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Monday, January 5, game #939)

• YELLOW: THINGS YOU CAN DO ON SOCIAL MEDIA COMMENT, LIKE, LURK, POST
• GREEN: FURTHEST POINT END, EXTREME, OPPOSITE, POLE
• BLUE: ART MOVEMENTS, WITH "-ISM" BRUTAL, IMPRESSION, MANNER, REAL
• PURPLE: WHAT "V" MIGHT MEAN FIVE, VERSUS, VERY, VOLT

What is NYT Connections?

NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.

On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.

It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.

It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.