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NYT Connections hint today and answers for Wednesday, 22nd Jan

Need some Connections hints for today? Read our guide for help with Connections #590.

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
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Need a hint for today's Connections on Wednesday, 22nd January? It's time for another tricky Connections puzzle! Today's head-scratcher features everything from 'Wizard' to the very nice word 'Bottoms,' which makes me chuckle because I have the mind of a child.

For all of you more mature than myself, read on. We've got a selection of hints to help you figure out today's Connections bit-by-bit. If you can't wait, just scroll down to the end of this page for all the answers revealed.

In this guide:

Here are the 16 Connections words for today:

Boxer Ditch Batter Lab
Chin Judge Pit Lawyer
Lecture Hole Wizard Discussion
Trench Bottoms Seminar Monk

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 Wednesday 22nd January

Here are your Connections hints for today:

  • Yellow: You'll attend these in university.
  • Green: You need shovels to make these.
  • Blue: All of these folks might be seen wearing a similar sort of garment.
  • Purple: All of these words can be accompanied with the opposite of 'Down.'
  • Extra hint 1: Judge and Wizard belong in the same group.
  • Extra hint 2: Batter here isn't referring to cake batter.

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

  • Yellow: Discussion
  • Green: Hole
  • Blue: Monk
  • Purple: Lawyer
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: Types Of Academic Courses
  • Green: Results Of Some Digging
  • Blue: Ones Wearing Robes
  • Purple: ___ Up

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 Wednesday, 22nd January:

  • Yellow: Types Of Academic Courses (Discussion, Lab, Lecture, Seminar)
  • Green: Results Of Some Digging (Ditch, Hole, Pit, Trench)
  • Blue: Ones Wearing Robes (Boxer, Judge, Monk, Wizard)
  • Purple: ___ Up (Batter, Bottoms, Chin, Lawyer)
A screenshot showing the Connections answers for 22 January, 2025.
Here are your Connections answers for January 22. | Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/NYT

The trickiest part of today's Connections, I think, is the Robes group. Judges, monks, and wizards might wear robes, sure - even if I tend to think of an East Asian martial artist when I hear the word 'Monk.' But Shaolin monks wear robes too, so all good.

Boxers, though. Boxers wear robes when they come out and cheer at the crowd, but I totally forgot this, since I kept thinking of the shorts and boxing gloves during matches. So I was at a complete loss on where to stick 'Boxer' in this puzzle until I'd put all of the other words in their right place.

'Batter' also gave me more issues than I'd care to admit. I kept thinking about baking, hence my hint above about how we're not talking about cake batter with today's Connections. Hopefully you didn't fall victim to the same thought processes!

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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