NYT Connections today — hints and answers for Thursday, September 12 (game #459)

Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need clues.

What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Wordle hints and answers , Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Connections today (game #459) - today's words

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• SAKE
• SAVE
• PEPSI
• MOCHI
• CURRY
• FETA
• BIRD
• BIOTA
• LIKE
• MAGIC
• ADVANTAGE
• КОВЕ
• FAVORITE
• INTEREST
• BOOKMARK
• BENEFIT

NYT Connections today (game #459) - hint #1 - group hints

What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?

• Yellow: Keep on the internet
• Green: For your gain
• Blue: Hoop dreams
• Purple: Finishes with letters from another alphabet

Need more clues?

We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…

NYT Connections today (game #459) - hint #2 - group answers

What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: MARK ONLINE FOR LATER
• GREEN: BEHALF
• BLUE: NBA LEGENDS, FAMILIARLY
• PURPLE: ENDING WITH GREEK LETTERS

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Connections today (game #459) - the answers

The answers to today's Connections, game #459, are…

• YELLOW: MARK ONLINE FOR LATER BOOKMARK, FAVORITE, LIKE, SAVE
• GREEN: BEHALF ADVANTAGE, BENEFIT, INTEREST, SAKE
• BLUE: NBA LEGENDS, FAMILIARLY BIRD, CURRY, KOBE, MAGIC
• PURPLE: ENDING WITH GREEK LETTERS BIOTA, FETA, MOCHI, PEPSI

• My rating: Easy
• My score: 1 mistake

This is a fairly simple Connections puzzle – there are three easy ones, meaning that the final (purple) group could be solved by default, which is great because that one was super-hard.

Blue almost seemed too easy – KOBE couldn't really refer to anything other than the basketball star or the Japanese city, and with CURRY, BIRD and MAGIC also on the board, it was clear that it was the former rather than the latter. Or at least that was the case for me. If you know nothing at all about the NBA, you may have struggled with that one too.

As for purple… well, the ENDING WITH GREEK LETTERS aspect was a clever one, but verging on too difficult, I'd suggest. I'm glad I didn't need to work out that one!

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Wednesday, 11 September, game #458)

• YELLOW: LARGE AMOUNT OF MONEY BUNDLE, FORTUNE, MINT, PILE
• GREEN: BITS OF WISDOM KERNEL, NUGGET, PEARL, TIDBIT
• BLUE: FEATURED IN “JURASSIC PARK” AMBER, DINOSAUR, MOSQUITO, PALEONTOLOGIST
• PURPLE: THINGS THAT ARE PURPLE AMETHYST, EGGPLANT, GRIMACE, LAVENDER

What is NYT Connections?

NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.

On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.

It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.

It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.