Today's NYT Connections hints and answers — Tuesday, January 23, #226 (2024)

Looking for today's Connections answers?The Connections answers on January 23 for puzzle #226 are slightly more tricky than yesterday's, with the Connections Companion rating this puzzle's difficulty at 3.2 out of 5.

Every day, we update this article with Connections hints and tips to help you find all 4 of today's answers. And if the hints aren't enough, you'll find all 4 answers below, with the category titles and the correlating words. Plus, we're including a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #225, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.

Spoilers lie ahead for Connections #226. Only read on if you want to know today's Connections answers.

Alternatively, visit our how to play NYT Connections guide for tips on how to solve the puzzle without our help.

Today's Connections answer — hints to help you solve it

Unlike our guide to today's Wordle answer, where we recommend the best Wordle start words as your strategy, solving Connections relies on identifying connecting categories among 16 words. Each category's difficulty level is represented by a color; yellow is the easiest grouping, and purple is the most challenging. Once you've made 4 mistakes in your guesses, the answers will be revealed, so hints can be helpful.

If you need hints to solve the groupings, then here are the themes of each, based on the order of difficulty:

• 🟨 Yellow: Genius genesis
• 🟩 Green: A cut above
• 🟦 Blue: Look down
• 🟪 Purple: Hand it over

These hints should get you at least some of the way towards finding today's Connections answers. If not, then you can read on for bigger clues; or, if you just want to know the answer, then scroll down further.

Alright then, here's a larger hint: Today's puzzle might make you feel like you're chasing coins in a fountain—lots of shimmer but tricky to grasp. Watch out for the monetary mirage; it's a crafty decoy. Instead, think of creation and symbols as you weave your way through the grid. And when you're ready to 'hand it over,' you'll find that the pieces pass together perfectly.

Today's Connections answers

So, what are today's Connections answers for game #226?

Drumroll, please...

• 🟨 Bring into being: Coin, create, devise, invent
• 🟩 Excellent: Fine, prime, quality, sterling
• 🟦 Symbols above numbers on a keyboard: At, dollar, percent, pound
• 🟪 Pass the ____: Bar, buck, time, torch

Today's foray into the land of Connections was a walk through a bustling marketplace, with the chatter of commerce ringing in my ears. With a pocketful of monetary terms, I thought I'd stumbled upon a fortune. But as I counted out Pound, Buck, Coin, Sterling, Bar, and Dollar, I realized that this was no simple trade.

I took a step back, eyeing the grid as a jeweler appraises gems. Then, the spark of creativity caught my eye; Devise, Create, and Invent clustered together, with Coin proving itself more than just currency—it was the final piece of the yellow category's puzzle of creation.

Peering down at my fingers for a moment, I found At (@), Pound (#), Percent (%), and Dollar ($). These keyboard stalwarts sitting above the numbers of my keys were surely in cahoots together, and were indeed the makings of the blue category today.

So, it seemed the treasure trove of monetary terms was but a rouse. Sterling, Prime, Quality, and Fine—these weren't just treasures of the mint; they were adjectives of excellence, and they gleamed together as the green category.

That left Time, Buck, Bar, and Torch. They felt like misfits until I realized they were connected by a common gesture of continuity. To pass the Bar, the Buck, the Time, or the Torch.

With the market's din fading, I emerged from today's Connections bazaar victorious, having bartered my way through a web of words with no coin spent and the monkey's paw left on the shelf.

Yesterday's Connections answers

Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Connections answers for game #225, which had a difficulty rating of 2.4 out of 5, according to the Connections Companion.

I faced today's Connections puzzle like a knight on a magical quest, but instead of dragons, it was words that needed taming. Spotting crown and scepter, I first thought I'd wandered into a royal court, but no—these were symbolic rods, full of wizardry power. Baton, scepter, staff, and wand all snapped into place, yielding the yellow category as I cried 'Connectiamus!'

Next, the dentist's lair beckoned with terms that would make anyone's teeth clench. Cavity, crown (a term of many hats, it seems), filling, and plaque grouped together as easily as a set of pearly whites, giving me the green category without a single drill whirring.

Then, it was off to the office. Words like urgent, paid, void, and approved seemed ready to stamp their authority on paperwork, and they did just that, neatly fitting into the blue category.

• 🟨 Symbolic rods: Baton, scepter, staff, wand
• 🟩 Dental terms: Cavity, crown, filling, plaque
• 🟦 Rubber stamp words: Approved, paid, urgent, void
• 🟪 ____ year: Gap, leap, light, school

Concluding my wordly adventure, I assembled the puzzle's annual quartet. Gap, leap, light, and school—distinct yet bound by the theme of "year"—wove together into the purple category, a tapestry depicting the flow of time.

The puzzle was solved in less time than a coffee break, each category falling into place without the need for any grand gestures, leaving me to lower my imaginary scepter in quiet triumph.