NYT Connections Hints October 20, 2025: Check Clues and Answers to Solve Today’s Puzzle Game

The NYT Connections puzzle represents a daily challenge of words that takes the reader through their vocabulary, logic, and pattern recognition. The players are given 16 words that have no apparent connections, and the task is to group them into four sets of four words, based on a connection for that group. Connections will vary, but they can include categories of colors, foods, and animals, or they can involve phrases, idioms, or clever wordplay. This word puzzle asks the player to use some creative thinking and sharp observation for the less straightforward connections that arise. The NYT Connections word puzzle covers a little bit of a range of challenge and fun. It has also become a favorite for puzzle loving fans who want to stretch their brains a little daily.

The NYT Connections puzzle from October 20, 2025 (Puzzle #862) included an engaging mix of categories that challenged logic and word association. Players needed to be able to classify groups of four words of 16 choices within a range of word connections. The groups included things you might use during a presentation, things people buy in souvenir shops, characters from classic folktales, and weather-related terms. Each group required on-site observation and clever thinking for players to identify the hidden group link.

Check Out: NYT Connections Hints October 16, 2025: Check Clues and Answers to Solve Today’s Puzzle Game

Hints for NYT Connections October 20, 2025  

The Connections puzzle, presented by The New York Times, for October 20, 2025 (Puzzle #862) is here! Here, four sets of words that appear to have no connection to one another actually have neat and relevant links, ranging from desserts to sea creatures! Put your thinking cap on and identify the patterns to identify today’s fantastic four categories.

Yellow Group Hint: These are the invisible things that trouble your mind, not your body. Everyone has a few.

Green Group Hint: You’ll have to look up to find these, they shine brightest on clear nights.

Blue Group Hint: These might look like random letters, but they’re chemically connected. Think science class.

Purple Group Hint: Add one word to all of these and they’ll sprout something familiar — from snacks to stars.

Stepping back will often expose the clever logic that provided the unifying. Let’s take a moment to go through the groups together, and explore the connections that tie these words together so nicely.

NYT Connections Answers for October 20, 2025 (Monday)

Here are the solutions for the October 20, 2025 New York Times Connections puzzle, which is Puzzle #859! Today's Connections challenge was a delightful mix of themes that required you to do reasoning, and also think quickly on your feet. From flavor-packed desserts made with fruit, to mood descriptors, blue water creatures, and kooky phrases about bananas, each grouping came with its special twist. If you found all four groups of four words, congratulations, you completed a puzzle that combined wordplay, logic, and attention to detail seamlessly!

YELLOW: AFFLICTION (BUGBEAR, COMPLEX, DEMON, HANG-UP)

GREEN: REPRESENTED BY CONSTELLATIONS (BIG BEAR, CENTAUR, HUNTER, LYRE)

BLUE: PERIODIC TABLE SYMBOLS (AS, BE, I, K)

PURPLE: ___CORN (A, CAPRI, POP, UNI)

It’s perfectly fine if you don’t complete a Connections puzzle, or if you need to set it aside before reaching the solution.

What is the NYT Connections Game?

NYT Connections is a daily word puzzle game from the New York Times. Players are presented with a grid of 16 words, seemingly unrelated to each other, and tasked to find connections. The aim of the game is to find connections to group them into four sets of four words. The common theme among the words can be categories like colors, movies, foods, or idioms. Each group is color-coded based on relative difficulty, from yellow (easy) to purple (hard). Players think critically by identifying patterns, double meanings, and subtler relationships. Developed by the NYT Games team, Connections has become a go-to brain game that is a playful way to use vocabulary, logic and lateral thinking.

How to Play the NYT Connections Puzzle

In the New York Times Connections game, you start off with a grid of 16 words in the game’s first phase. Your primary task is to place those 16 words into four sets of four words each that share some hidden connection or theme. The hidden connections may rely on similarities in stretches of meanings, common phrases, categories of words, word-play elements, or more. You can select any four words at a time and submit that group to make your own guess. If it is, in fact, a correct group, it will highlight your guess in a color that signifies its level of difficulty, from yellow, which means "easy," to purple, which means "hard." You get four correct by passing into the second phase and then if you miss four correct groups, the game ends. So, as a strategy, be sure to think outside of the box, see if there are overlapping tricky connections, and use some automatic reasoning to uncover the logic of each set. 

Best Strategies to Solve NYT Connections Puzzles

To complete New York Times Connections puzzles quickly, you will want to use both logic and observation while staying strategic. Begin by reviewing all 16 words for quick connections or topics. Search for words that are unique or not common with the others, as they are often part of a category. Also, it’s important to consider the words from multiple perspectives - use their definitions, synonyms, phrases, or cultural references to connect them in the beginning. Group the words for a potential category, and if they seem to work, test the group or connect words from two different groups that seem to have some overlap or relevance. Take your time - let the easier connections help you make the harder connections. After you complete several puzzles, your overall pattern recognition and word association skills will take you're solving speed and accuracy on these puzzles to the next level.

Other NYT Games to Explore

If NYT Connections has become your new favorite, check out other daily brain teasers and games from The New York Times. 

Wordle: Guess a five-letter word in six attempts. 

Spelling Bee: Craft as many words as possible from a set of seven letters.

Mini Crossword: For a quick wordplay, perfect for a coffee break.

That's all for today's NYT Connections puzzle! Be sure to come back tomorrow for NYT Connections Hints and Answers for October 21, 2025.