NYT Connections today — hints and answers for Tuesday, June 11 (game #366)

Happy birthday, Connections! It’s game 366 today, and given that it’s a leap year that means it’s the 12-month anniversary of Connections starting. And the NYT has celebrated by giving us a really difficult one; you definitely might want some hints to help you out.

What should you do once you’ve finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I’ve also got daily Wordle hints and answers, Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too.

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 #366) – today’s words

Today’s NYT Connections words are…

• HI
• BYE
• TRI
• BI
• TRAP
• AB
• POP
• OFF
• DUB
• MED
• BUY
• QUAD
• LO
• EMO
• PEC
• BY

NYT Connections today (game #366) – hint #1 – group hints

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

• Yellow: Sounds familiar
• Green: Total flex
• Blue: What you listening to?
• Purple: Dial it up

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 #366) – hint #2 – group answers

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

• YELLOW: HOMOPHONES
• GREEN: MUSCLES, INFORMALLY
• BLUE: MUSIC GENRES
• PURPLE: SETTINGS ON AN APPLIANCE KNOB

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

NYT Connections today (game #366) – the answers

The answers to today’s Connections, game #366, are…

• YELLOW: HOMOPHONES BI, BUY, BY, BYE
• GREEN: MUSCLES, INFORMALLY AB, PEC, QUAD, TRI
• BLUE: MUSIC GENRES DUB, EMO, POP, TRAP
• PURPLE: SETTINGS ON AN APPLIANCE KNOB HI, LO, MED, OFF

• My rating: Hard
• My score: Two mistakes

Well this was a tough one! In fact, it’s arguably the most difficult Connections puzzle I’ve played in weeks. I solved it in the end, with two mistakes, but it took me about an hour to find all of the answers, split over several shorter sessions which mostly consisted of me staring at the board in bemusement.

The problem is obvious immediately. Five of the words have only two letters, nine have three and two have four. And almost all of them could be prefixes. If you’re anything like me, you will have got hung up on that for ages, thinking of various words that could follow the various answers. Could BI and TRI go with CYCLE? And what would the other two be? Are some of them parts of words – for instance LO and EMO could be followed by TION to make LOTION and EMOTION. But again, there are only two of them.

It was only when I looked for a different kind of connection that I made progress. BI, BUY, BY and BYE obviously all sound exactly the same. Obviously! How did I miss that? And then I realized that DUB, POP, EMO and TRAP are all music styles and solved blue next. I was getting there. And then I stalled again.

With only two sets to find, I could see that muscles was a probable group – but I only knew three: QUAD, PEC and AB. I tried MED, then HI, failed twice, then went with TRI and got it. That gave me purple too and I solved this difficult Connections puzzle with two errors.

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.

Yesterday’s NYT Connections answers (Monday, 10 June, game #365)

• YELLOW: CORE CRUX, ESSENCE, HEART, SUBSTANCE
• GREEN: COMPLICATED BAROQUE, COMPLEX, ELABORATE, INVOLVED
• BLUE: SYMBOLS USED IN MAKING LISTS ARROW, BULLET, CHECKBOX, HYPHEN
• PURPLE: WHAT “CROSS” MIGHT MEAN ANGRY, BETRAY, CRUCIFIX, HYBRID