There's A Secret Fifth Group In Today's NYT Connections That'll Trip You Up Even Worse Than "Real" Or "Way"

Illustration: Kotaku / Vicky Leta

In This Story

Welcome to the weekend, puzzlers! There’s a rugged Connections waiting for you today—each group has one word that, when taken with the one word from another group, could easily form its own group. But they don’t, so you’d be wrong. (Like we were, darn it.) Maybe you’ll need some wake-me-up background music to get you ready—something nice and gentle like the Helldivers 2 soundtrack, maybe? Go spread democracy!

Here for you while you listen are your daily sweet 16 words, back and ready for your best grouping efforts. The popular Connections brainbuster from The New York Times has four groups of words with a shared theme or commonality, but they’re shuffled into random order for you to figure out. Remember to take your time — many words have multiple meanings, so think twice before you click.

Today’s words: REAL, MEDIUM, IMPRESSIVE, EXCLUSIVE, NICE, RARE, AWFUL, MYSTIC, WAY, WELL DONE, BLOODY, LIMITED, ORACLE, PROPS, COLLECTIBLE, and PSYCHIC.

Photo: Chris Haston/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images (Getty Images)

Above is your visual hint for today’s yellow group. Maybe it’s right on the money for you? If you’re still scratching your head, well, hate to tell you, but yellow is the easiest group.

Need a verbal clue? No, actually, you don’t. Not if you’re one of these four words. Then you would know exactly what we’re thinking already.

Tapping out? Three of these fell right into line, but the fourth took a second, only because the Times put one word in each of today’s four groups that, when put together, could have formed a group of its own. More on that as we go.

Today’s yellow group answer is Clairvoyant and its words are MEDIUM, MYSTIC, ORACLE, and PSYCHIC.

Photo: INA FASSBENDER/AFP via Getty Images (Getty Images)

We’re going to go out on a limb and say this is a pretty powerful visual clue. Will it get you to the finish line? That’s the catch—you still have to find the right words.

Need the verbal clue too? If dolls aren’t your thing, think comic books. Or baseball cards. Stamps, maybe?

Give up? Green came together pretty quickly for us today. But we almost got thrown by that one word that could have been part of that nonexistent fifth group we’ll let you in on later.

Today’s green group answer is Special Edition Adjectives and its words are COLLECTIBLE, EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED, and RARE.

Photo: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images (Getty Images)

There’s your visual hint for today’s blue group. It might be your eureka! moment. (No, sorry, that was not a clue.) Or it might not have helped at all. Hey, we try.

Time for the verbal clue: It’s the slap-on-the-back group today, or what you’ll say to yourself if you solve today’s Connections with a perfect score.

No? We were detecting a theme by now. Today’s groups are relatively simple except for that one multi-meaning word that fits with the other three multi-meaning words in today’s puzzle. Or maybe we shouldn’t have done Connections on an empty stomach.

Today’s blue group answer is “Great Job!” and its words are IMPRESSIVE, NICE, PROPS, and WELL DONE.

Photo: Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC (Getty Images)

The purple group is the hardest one, so don’t kick yourself if this visual hint does not immediately take you to the promised land.

Here’s your verbal clue if you’re not into Mixed Martial Arts: Get your Britspeak on for one of these words, and your Bill and Ted for another.

Crying uncle? This was our process-of-elimination group today, probably as the Times’ puzzlemaster intended. Oh, and that imaginary fifth group? We tried MEDIUM, RARE, WELL DONE, and BLOODY for a steak group. Mmmm…..bloody……

Today’s purple group answer is Extremely and its words are AWFUL, BLOODY, REAL, and WAY.

We’ll see if the Times takes it easier on us tomorrow—check back then and find out!