Hints And Answers For Tuesday, February 4

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

ForbesNYT ‘Connections’ Today: Hints And Answers For Monday, February 3By Kris Holt

Hey, everyone! I hope your week’s off to a great start.

I’ve really enjoyed sharing many of the things I like with you in the recommendations section at the end of the column over the last several months. I’m into all kinds of music and movies and games and experiences, and I think it’s healthy to talk about the things you enjoy.

As long as the things you like aren’t harming anyone else, there’s no such thing as a guilty pleasure. Enjoy the things you love with your whole heart, and don’t let anyone make you feel ashamed about them. The concept of a guilty pleasure is a ridiculous one.

Before we begin, 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 Tuesday, February 4, 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…

• FILE
• SAVE
• BUTTER
• CHICKEN
• SPREAD
• SAND
• UNDER
• STORE
• LADY
• FAVORITE
• STICKY
• PRESERVE
• KEEP
• BUFF
• PARLAY
• GRIND

And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:

• Yellow group — retain for later
• Green group — make a surface sleek and even
• Blue group — ways to put it on the line
• Purple group — linked by a body part

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 — conserve
• Green group — smooth using friction
• Blue group — sports gambling terms
• Purple group — words before “fingers”

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 — conserve (KEEP, PRESERVE, SAVE, STORE)
• Green group — smooth using friction (BUFF, FILE, GRIND, SAND)
• Blue group — sports gambling terms (FAVORITE, PARLAY, SPREAD, UNDER)
• Purple group — words before “fingers” (BUTTER, CHICKEN, LADY, STICKY)

Alas, no perfect game today, but the overall streak is up to 22 wins. Here’s how I fared:

🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟨🟨🟦🟨
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟦🟦🟦🟦

I did enjoy seeing BUTTER and CHICKEN next to each other on the top line. That’s one of my favorite dishes. FILE and SAVE next to each other seemed like a red herring of computer commands.

I got the greens swiftly, but then I tripped up. I included FAVORITE with the yellows instead of PRESERVE (which I thought would go with BUTTER and SPREAD) as a group of actions you take to retain something on your phone or computer for later. Drat. At least I realized that error quickly and secured the yellows.

At least things were straightforward enough that I could spot the blues as a group of betting terms. I figured out the purple connection before submitting that as my third group and wrapping up with the blues.

BUTTER fingers is a term for someone who drops things, which CHICKEN fingers is another name for chicken tenders or strips. LADY fingers are sponge cookies and STICKY fingers is a term for someone who has a tendency to steal things.

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 Wednesday’s game if you need them.

P.S. After over a week of dance/house recommendations, let’s slow things right down. Along with my enormous main playlist of upbeat songs I really like, I also have one I often play when I’m trying to sleep.

This song from Woodlock is the most recent addition to my Bedtime Jams playlist. “Quick Hands” is an absolutely lovely track I first heard on Apple Music’s Sunday Morning playlist (which is what wakes me up at the weekend). I haven’t listened to any of Woodlock’s other music yet, but I’m making that a priority given how much I love this song:

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.