Welcome to Sunday's Connections. Puzzle #1,239 is live, and below is our usual ladder: the board, then hints that get more specific, then the four groups behind a reveal.
Our read of the board: sixteen plain words with no obvious giveaways, so expect at least one group that only makes sense once the others are gone. As always, the purple group is the one built to mislead; if you see an obvious category of five or six words, that is the trap.
Today's board
The sixteen words, in the order they appear on the board. No spoilers here.
HEADTRIPPINGCANINELOVERDOGGYSELFMATURATEDPUPPYHOUNDINCISORBROTHERLYBICUSPIDUNREQUITEDTRENCHEDMOLARFIEND
Hints for today's Connections
Three levels of help. Level one nudges, level two points, level three names the categories one at a time.
Level 1 · The categories, by first letterYellow: starts with K, 3 wordsGreen: starts with K, 3 wordsBlue: starts with E, one wordPurple: starts with S, 7 words
Level 2 · One word from each groupYellow contains BICUSPIDGreen contains PUPPYBlue contains HOUNDPurple contains TRIPPING
Level 3 · The category namesYellow category
KINDS OF TEETH
Green category
KINDS OF LOVE
Blue category
ENTHUSIAST
Purple category
SYNONYMS FOR "SOAKED" WITH FIRST LETTER CHANGED
Today's Connections answers
The full solution to Connections #1,239 is behind the button, yellow to purple. Nothing is shown until you click.
▶ Reveal the answers to Connections #1,239
KINDS OF TEETH
BICUSPID, CANINE, INCISOR, MOLAR
Yellow · the most straightforward group
KINDS OF LOVE
BROTHERLY, PUPPY, SELF, UNREQUITED
Green · usually a step harder
ENTHUSIAST
FIEND, HEAD, HOUND, LOVER
Blue · where the red herrings start to bite
SYNONYMS FOR "SOAKED" WITH FIRST LETTER CHANGED
DOGGY, MATURATED, TRENCHED, TRIPPING
Purple · the trickiest, often wordplay
Yesterday's Connections
Connections #1,238 on Saturday, October 31 had these four groups (our full write-up is still up):
WORDS MEANING GOOD THAT SOUND BADGNARLY, KILLER, SICK, WICKED
MARTINI SPECIFICATIONSDIRTY, DRY, SHAKEN, UP
THINGS WITH STRINGSGUITAR, MARIONETTE, TASSEL, TENNIS RACKET
STARTING WITH DOG COMMANDSDOWNFALL, SHAKESPEARE, SITCOM, STAYCATION
How Connections works
Sixteen words hide four groups of four that share something in common. Pick four, submit, and the row locks in if you are right; four wrong submissions end the game. The groups are colour-coded by difficulty, yellow being the most direct and purple the most devious, and most boards include at least one word that could plausibly sit in two groups. Today's puzzle was edited by Wyna Liu at The New York Times.
A reliable habit: before submitting anything, find the five or six words that seem to belong to one obvious category and work out which of them is the imposter. Solving the strange group first is often easier than solving the obvious one.
Connections resets at midnight in your local time zone. We will be back tomorrow with the hints for #1,240.