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NYT Connections hint and answers for Tuesday, 21st Jan

Need some Connections hints for today? Read our guide for help with Connections #589.

An abstract image with an altered Connections logo in the centre, surrounded by circles connected by webbed lines.
Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/NYT
Jeremy Blum avatar
Guide by Jeremy Blum Guides Writer
Published on

This guide is for a previous day! Looking for today's? Check out the Connections hint for Wednesday 22nd January!

Need a hint for today's Connections on Tuesday, 21st January? It's time for another witty Connections puzzle from the folks over at The New York Times. If you're pounding your head in frustration trying to make sense of today's words, you're in good company! We're here to assist.

Read on for a hint regarding each Connections group today, plus bonus hints for those truly stuck. Today's puzzle wasn't too difficult for me, but that is of course subjective depending on your knowledge of the words on display. Let's take a look!

In this guide:

Here are the 16 Connections words for today:

Miniature Octopus Crack Pepper
Slight Salt Dig Sand
Doll Who Shovel Figure
Plow Barb Model No

How to play Connections

Connections is one of the most popular (and challenging) daily puzzle games published by the New York Times (owners of Wordle). The aim of Connections is to group the 16 words of the day into four groups, where each group of four words has a common theme.

For instance, the words "Hook", "Nana", "Peter", and "Wendy" are all Peter Pan characters. Or to take another example, "Action", "Ballpark", "Go", and "Stick" are all words which commonly come just before the word "Figure".

Your job is to figure out what these themes are that connect the various words together - but be wary, because a lot of the time there are deceptive red herring connections placed purely to throw you off! To win the game, you have to find all four Connections without making 4 mistakes. On your fourth mistake, the game is over and the answer is revealed automatically.

Each of the four groups in each day's Connections puzzle is also assigned a different colour, which represents how easy or difficult the Connection is to find. These colours are: Yellow (Easiest), Green (Easy), Blue (Medium), and Purple (Hardest).

Connections hint for Tuesday 21st January

Here are your Connections hints for today:

  • Yellow: Other words for a snarky insult.
  • Green: You can find these in toy and hobby shops.
  • Blue: You use these in the winter.
  • Purple: Famous characters with a physician's title.
  • Extra hint 1: No here is not referring to the opposite of yes.
  • Extra hint 2: Barb and Crack are in the same group.

If you need a bit more help, tap the spoiler text below to reveal one word belonging to each group:

  • Yellow: Dig
  • Green: Model
  • Blue: Sand
  • Purple: Who
Spoiler warning! Today's Connections groups are revealed just below!

What are today's Connections groups?

If you need an even bigger clue to figure out today's Connections puzzle, below we'll reveal the four correct Connections groups - the themes which link together each set of four words in the Connections grid.

Here are the Connections groups for today:

  • Yellow: Putdown
  • Green: Small Likeness
  • Blue: Used To Clear Snow
  • Purple: Doctors In Pop Culture

Now that you know the themes for the various different Connections in today's puzzle, see if you can solve it! If not, check below for the full answer.

Spoiler warning! Today's Connections answer lies ahead!

What is today's Connections answer?

Here is the answer to today's Connections puzzle on Tuesday, 21st January:

  • Yellow: Putdown (Barb, Crack, Dig, Slight)
  • Green: Small Likeness (Doll, Figure, Miniature, Model)
  • Blue: Used To Clear Snow (Plow, Salt, Sand, Shovel)
  • Purple: Doctors In Pop Culture (No, Octopus, Pepper, Who)
A screenshot showing the Connections answers for January 21, 2025.
Here are the answers for the January 21 Connections puzzle. | Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/NYT

I solved today's Connections in an unusual order. As a certified nerd who enjoys accumulating action figures, models, and miniatures of all sorts (currently staring at an ogre mini on my desk that I have yet to paint), it was easy for me to establish the link between all of the Green words.

The Purple words came to me next, which is a very rare occurrence indeed, since usually I'm totally at a loss when it comes to these. Doctor Octopus, No, and Pepper I know very well, though I confess to not having watched much Doctor Who aside from the 2023 Christmas special. (I know, I should go back and start from the 2005 reboot like a proper Whovian.)

Finally, I got the Yellow and Blue words quickly through a process of elimination. This marks the first time that I've solved those last!

Congratulations if you got today's Connections answer right, with or without the help of our handy hints above! And if you didn't succeed today, don't worry - a new Connections puzzle is released every day at midnight, so you can try again tomorrow, just like with Wordle!

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