The New York Times Connections
The New York Times Connections

NEW YORK — Monday's New York Times Connections puzzle opens the week with a grid built around mood, mature content and everyday objects. It also includes a well-disguised purple category that depends on the endings of words.

Puzzle No. 1212 also features a red herring inspired by the "Parental Advisory: Explicit Content" warning labels once common on music albums, which could lead some players to make an early mistake.

Below are hints and tips 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, gives players 16 words to sort into four groups of four. Each group shares 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 usually involves wordplay.

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

Today's 16 words

Monday's grid includes:

PARENT, ADVISORY, EXPLICIT, CONTENT, CHESS, PLEASE, MESSAGE, GRAPHIC, STRONG, SAPPHIRE, SUGGESTIVE, SERENE, PEACEFUL, IRONING, SLOAN, PLACID

Category hints

If you want to solve the puzzle on your own, try these clues:

Yellow: Words that describe a relaxed, untroubled state.

Green: Think of warnings about material that may not be suitable for children.

Blue: Each word can come before a common noun that describes a flat surface, or a group of people who make decisions.

Purple: Look at the end of each word. You'll find a way to use something that isn't yours for a while.

One word from each group

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

  • Yellow: SERENE
  • Green: GRAPHIC
  • Blue: CHESS
  • Purple: SLOAN

Watch out for the 'Parental Advisory' trap

The biggest red herring in Monday's puzzle involves PARENT, ADVISORY, EXPLICIT and CONTENT. Together, they suggest the famous "Parental Advisory: Explicit Content" label that appeared on many albums starting in the 1980s and 1990s.

Players who try to group those four words will lose a guess, because they belong to four different categories. CONTENT fits with words meaning calm, EXPLICIT belongs with words describing mature content, ADVISORY is a kind of board, and PARENT is part of the purple group.

GRAPHIC and MESSAGE could also cause confusion, since both relate to content and communication. GRAPHIC belongs in the mature content group, while MESSAGE fits with boards.

Strategy tips

  • Start with the most straightforward group. The calm words are a good place to begin.
  • Watch for words with double meanings. CONTENT can mean both "satisfied" and "material," which makes it especially tricky.
  • Examine word endings. When a group doesn't make sense, look for smaller words hidden inside longer ones.
  • Use the shuffle button to break up misleading patterns in the grid.

Today's category names

Here are the four categories:

  • Yellow: Calm
  • Green: Adjectives for mature content
  • Blue: Kinds of boards
  • Purple: Ending in ways to temporarily acquire

Today's Connections answers

Spoiler warning: The full solutions are below.

Yellow — Calm: CONTENT, PEACEFUL, PLACID, SERENE

Each word describes a state of calm or contentment.

Green — Adjectives for mature content: EXPLICIT, GRAPHIC, STRONG, SUGGESTIVE

These words are commonly used in content warnings for movies, TV shows and other media, such as "graphic violence," "strong language" or "suggestive themes."

Blue — Kinds of boards: ADVISORY, CHESS, IRONING, MESSAGE

Each word can come before "board" to form a familiar term: advisory board, chessboard, ironing board and message board.

Purple — Ending in ways to temporarily acquire: PARENT, PLEASE, SAPPHIRE, SLOAN

Each word ends with a way to temporarily obtain something: paRENT ends in "rent," pLEASE ends in "lease," sapphHIRE ends in "hire," and sLOAN ends in "loan."

Why the purple group is tricky

The purple category hides its answers inside unrelated words. PARENT and PLEASE are everyday words, SAPPHIRE is a gemstone and SLOAN is a name, so the link is hard to see until players look closely at the endings.

The inclusion of PARENT in the purple group also makes the "Parental Advisory" red herring especially effective.

Yesterday's answers

For players catching up, Sunday's puzzle (No. 1211) had these solutions:

  • Yellow — Considerable amount: BUNCH, HEAP, LOT, STACK
  • Green — Table tennis needs: BALL, NET, PADDLE, TABLE
  • Blue — Parts of a judge costume: COLLAR, GAVEL, ROBE, WIG
  • Purple — Silent ___: AUCTION, FILM, PARTNER, TREATMENT

A new Connections puzzle will be released at midnight local time Tuesday, Oct. 6. Check back for hints, tips and answers to help keep your winning streak going.

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