The New York Times Connections
The New York Times Connections

NEW YORK — Sunday's New York Times Connections puzzle mixes sports equipment, courtroom imagery and words for piles of things. It also includes a convincing auction-themed red herring that could cost players a guess.

Puzzle No. 1211 rewards players who look past the obvious connections and think about familiar phrases.

Below are hints to help you solve the puzzle, followed by the full answers.

How Connections works

Connections, created by The New York Times in 2023 and edited by Wyna Liu, presents players with 16 words. The goal is to sort them into four groups of four that share a common theme.

The groups are color-coded by difficulty:

  • Yellow is the easiest.
  • Green is moderately easy.
  • Blue is harder.
  • Purple is the most difficult and often involves wordplay.

Players can make up to four mistakes before the game ends. A new puzzle is released daily at midnight local time.

Today's 16 words

Sunday's grid includes:

WIG, FILM, AUCTION, TABLE, PADDLE, COLLAR, GAVEL, LOT, BUNCH, BALL, PARTNER, NET, ROBE, HEAP, TREATMENT, STACK

Category hints

If you want to solve the puzzle without spoilers, try these clues:

Yellow: Think of everyday ways to describe a large amount of something.

Green: Picture a fast-paced indoor game played across a small court.

Blue: Order in the court.

Purple: Each word can follow a word that means "quiet" or "without sound."

One word from each group

Need more help? Here is one word from each category:

  • Yellow: BUNCH
  • Green: BALL
  • Blue: COLLAR
  • Purple: AUCTION

Watch out for the auction trap

The biggest red herring in Sunday's grid involves AUCTION. Several words seem to fit an auction theme: an auctioneer bangs a GAVEL, bidders raise a PADDLE, and items for sale are listed as a LOT.

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Players who try to group those words together will quickly run into trouble, because each of them belongs to a different category. LOT fits with words describing a large amount, PADDLE belongs with sports equipment, GAVEL is part of the courtroom group, and AUCTION itself belongs in the purple category.

TABLE can also mislead players, since it could seem to fit with general household or furniture terms. It belongs to the sports group.

Strategy tips

  • Look for the category with the most obvious members first. Sports equipment and courtroom items are good starting points.
  • Be cautious with words that fit several themes, such as LOT, PADDLE and GAVEL.
  • Think about phrases. The purple category depends on a word that comes before each answer.
  • Use the shuffle button to see the grid in a new arrangement.

Today's category names

Here are the four categories:

  • Yellow: Considerable amount
  • Green: Table tennis needs
  • Blue: Parts of a judge costume
  • Purple: Silent ___

Today's Connections answers

Spoiler warning: The full solutions are below.

Yellow — Considerable amount: BUNCH, HEAP, LOT, STACK

Each word describes a large quantity or a pile of things, as in "a bunch of," "a heap of," "a lot of" or "a stack of."

Green — Table tennis needs: BALL, NET, PADDLE, TABLE

These are the essential pieces of equipment for a game of table tennis, also known as ping-pong.

Blue — Parts of a judge costume: COLLAR, GAVEL, ROBE, WIG

Each item is associated with a traditional judge's look. Wigs remain part of judicial dress in some countries, including Britain, while robes, collars and gavels are familiar courtroom symbols.

Purple — Silent ___: AUCTION, FILM, PARTNER, TREATMENT

Each word can follow "silent" to form a familiar phrase: silent auction, silent film, silent partner and silent treatment.

Why the purple group is tricky

The four purple answers come from very different areas: fundraising events, early cinema, business and relationships. That variety makes the link hard to spot until players think of the shared word "silent."

AUCTION is especially misleading because of its strong association with LOT, GAVEL and PADDLE.

Yesterday's answers

For players catching up, Saturday's puzzle (No. 1210) had these solutions:

  • Yellow — Starting with terms for "toilet": CAN OPENER, HEAD WAITER, JOHN DENVER, W.C. FIELDS
  • Green — Ending in musicals: ELBOW GREASE, FAT CATS, LINDA HAMILTON, SOMETHING WICKED
  • Blue — Starting with U.S. museums: BROAD BEAN, GETTY IMAGES, MET HALFWAY, WHITNEY HOUSTON
  • Purple — Ending in fantasy creatures: DIET SPRITE, MERV GRIFFIN, NY GIANT, RIVER PHOENIX

What's next

A new Connections puzzle will be released at midnight local time Monday, Oct. 5. Check back for hints and answers to help keep your winning streak alive.

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