The New York Times Connections
The New York Times Connections

The New York Times' Connections puzzle for Sunday, Nov. 1, mixed dental vocabulary, matters of the heart and a dog-themed decoy, capped by a purple group built on a sneaky spelling change.

Puzzle No. 1239, edited by Wyna Liu, drew mixed reviews. One TechRadar reviewer rated it hard, saying letter-change wordplay is the toughest kind to spot, while a Forbes writer called it relatively easy for a post-Halloween Sunday. Below are hints, the full answers and tips for future puzzles.

How Connections works

Connections gives players 16 words to sort into four groups of four that share a common theme. Groups are color-coded by difficulty: yellow is easiest, followed by green, blue and purple, which is usually the hardest. Players can make up to four mistakes.

Sunday's grid

The 16 words were: HEAD, TRIPPING, CANINE, LOVER, DOGGY, SELF, MATURATED, PUPPY, HOUND, INCISOR, BROTHERLY, BICUSPID, UNREQUITED, TRENCHED, MOLAR and FIEND.

Hints for each group

Players who want a nudge can start here.

Yellow: Think about what helps you break down food. A dentist would know these well.

Green: Think romance, and the many forms it can take. Another word that would fit this group is "true."

Blue: Think of someone who is keen on things, a person who might say, "Love that! Big fan!"

Purple: Look for words related to getting wet, each with something altered. Try swapping out the first letter.

The category names

For one more push without the full solution:

Yellow: KINDS OF TEETH

Green: KINDS OF LOVE

Blue: ENTHUSIAST

Purple: SYNONYMS FOR "SOAKED" WITH FIRST LETTER CHANGED

Warning: Answers below

Players who want to keep trying should stop reading here.

Yellow (KINDS OF TEETH): BICUSPID, CANINE, INCISOR, MOLAR

Green (KINDS OF LOVE): BROTHERLY, PUPPY, SELF, UNREQUITED

Blue (ENTHUSIAST): FIEND, HEAD, HOUND, LOVER

Purple (SYNONYMS FOR "SOAKED" WITH FIRST LETTER CHANGED): DOGGY, MATURATED, TRENCHED, TRIPPING

Breaking down the puzzle

The yellow group covered the four main types of human teeth. Incisors sit at the front for cutting, canines are the pointed teeth beside them, bicuspids, also called premolars, come next, and molars at the back grind food.

The green group listed familiar forms of love: brotherly love, puppy love, self-love and unrequited love.

The blue group gathered words that can follow a hobby or interest to describe a devoted fan. Think of a fitness FIEND, a gear HEAD, a publicity HOUND or a music LOVER.

The purple group required players to change the first letter of each word to reveal a synonym for "soaked":

DOGGY becomes SOGGY.

MATURATED becomes SATURATED.

TRENCHED becomes DRENCHED.

TRIPPING becomes DRIPPING.

Where players stumbled

The grid's biggest trap was a dog theme that didn't exist. CANINE, PUPPY, HOUND and DOGGY all suggest dogs, tempting players to group them together. In fact, each belonged to a different category: CANINE with teeth, PUPPY with love, HOUND with enthusiasts and DOGGY with the purple wordplay.

LOVER was another decoy. It looks like it belongs with the kinds of love, but it fit the enthusiast group instead.

CANINE had a double meaning as well, working both as a type of tooth and as a word for dog.

The purple words were especially hard to spot because MATURATED, TRENCHED and TRIPPING are real words with meanings unrelated to water, disguising the hidden synonyms.

Tips for future Connections puzzles

Be suspicious of obvious themes. When four or more words seem to share an easy connection, like dogs on Sunday, it is often a deliberate red herring.

Check for double meanings. Words such as CANINE and LOVER fit more than one category. Before submitting, confirm all four words share exactly the same link.

Try letter swaps on odd words. If a word seems out of place, such as MATURATED, test changing, adding or removing a letter to see whether a new word appears.

Start with the most certain group. The teeth were a solid anchor Sunday, since BICUSPID, INCISOR and MOLAR have few other meanings.

Use elimination. Once three groups are solved, the last four words automatically form the final category.

More puzzles to try

After Connections, players can try other New York Times games, including Wordle, Strands, Pips, the Mini Crossword and Connections: Sports Edition.

Monday's Connections puzzle, No. 1240, unlocks at midnight local time with a new grid of 16 words.