NYT Connections hints and answers for Monday, January 5 (game #939)

NYT Connections homescreen on a phone, on a purple background
(Image credit: New York Times)
Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Sunday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Sunday, January 4 (game #938).

Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints.

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 #939) - today's words

NYT Connections hints for game 939 on a purple background

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

  • BRUTAL
  • IMPRESSION
  • VERY
  • REAL
  • LIKE
  • MANNER
  • POLE
  • POST
  • FIVE
  • VERSUS
  • EXTREME
  • END
  • OPPOSITE
  • COMMENT
  • LURK
  • VOLT

NYT Connections today (game #939) - hint #1 - group hints

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

  • YELLOW: Facebook behavior
  • GREEN: Very far away
  • BLUE: A brush with history 
  • PURPLE: After U

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 #939) - hint #2 - group answers

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

  • YELLOW: THINGS YOU CAN DO ON SOCIAL MEDIA
  • GREEN: FURTHEST POINT
  • BLUE: ART MOVEMENTS, WITH "-ISM"
  • PURPLE: WHAT "V" MIGHT MEAN

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

NYT Connections today (game #939) - the answers

NYT Connections answers for game 939 on a purple background

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #939, are…

  • YELLOW: THINGS YOU CAN DO ON SOCIAL MEDIA COMMENT, LIKE, LURK, POST
  • GREEN: FURTHEST POINT END, EXTREME, OPPOSITE, POLE
  • BLUE: ART MOVEMENTS, WITH "-ISM" BRUTAL, IMPRESSION, MANNER, REAL
  • PURPLE: WHAT "V" MIGHT MEAN FIVE, VERSUS, VERY, VOLT

  • My rating: Hard
  • My score: Perfect

In the early days of social media I would POST, LIKE and COMMENT for hours, before gradually fading into my 10-minute a day LURK period. Now, I tend to avoid it altogether and the main reason is the advertising – it’s not that it's bad, it’s that it’s too good. Seriously, every time I fire up Facebook, TikTok or Instagram the ads are so well-targeted I find myself going on unnecessary spending sprees for cleaning products I never knew I desperately needed.

Anyway, I digress. This was a good day for me as I managed to get the purple group a little bit early.

That said, I didn’t get it because I saw they were all ART MOVEMENTS, WITH ISM. I just saw the “ism” part – if there had been a tile for 'surreal' or 'cub' maybe I would have seen that too, but MANNER is not a movement I’m familiar with.


Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Sunday, January 4, game #938)

  • YELLOW: PAPER PUBLICATION COPY, EDITION, ISSUE, PRINT
  • GREEN: SPOOL COIL, CRANK, REEL, WIND
  • BLUE: THINGS A DEFENSIVE FOOTBALL PLAYER DOES BLITZ, BLOCK, SACK, TACKLE
  • PURPLE: SYNONYMS FOR BUTT PLUS STARTING LETTER DREAR, ETAIL, GRUMP, SCAN

What is NYT Connections?

NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.

On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.

It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.

It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

Contributor

Johnny is a freelance pop culture journalist who has been writing about the internet, music, football and famous people since the iPhone was just a twinkle in Steve Jobs' eye. Previously known by the pseudonym the Pop Detective, his journalistic career began making up stories about Madonna's addiction to sausage rolls (this is not true by the way). A man of few talents, his career is rich and various and includes the highs of interviewing Elton John and Blur; and the lows of interviewing Right Said Fred, appearing on a Channel 5 documentary about Peter Kay, and fact-checking the instruction manual for a German cooker. Somehow still affording to live in North London he is at his happiest riding his bicycle and shouting at pigeons.

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