NYT Connections today — hints and answers for Thursday, October 3 (game #480)

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 #480) - today's words

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• SKI
• PANT
• PRUNE
• JUICE
• PUNCH
• POT
• MILK
• SMITE
• SOCK
• BLOUSE
• EARBUD
• WATER
• STICK
• SODA
• FERTILIZE
• BOOKEND

NYT Connections today (game #480) - hint #1 - group hints

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

• Yellow: Drinks
• Green: Green-fingered tasks
• Blue: Two's company
• Purple: Hidden creepy crawlies

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 #480) - hint #2 - group answers

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

• YELLOW: BEVERAGES
• GREEN: CARE FOR A PLANT
• BLUE: ITEM SOLD IN PAIRS
• PURPLE: BUGS PLUS STARTING LETTER

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

NYT Connections today (game #480) - the answers

The answers to today's Connections, game #480, are…

• YELLOW: BEVERAGES JUICE, MILK, PUNCH, SODA
• GREEN: CARE FOR A PLANT FERTILIZE, POT, PRUNE, WATER
• BLUE: ITEM SOLD IN PAIRS BOOKEND, EARBUD, SKI, SOCK
• PURPLE: BUGS PLUS STARTING LETTER BLOUSE, PANT, SMITE, STICK

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

This is a fairly simple Connections puzzle as they go – although it's all relative, of course.

The key to solving it, for me, was getting the purple group first. This is traditionally the hardest of the four Connections, so solving it early takes off some of the pressure. And there's a definite psychological boost to completing it early!

Today's was a clever one – BUGS PLUS STARTING LETTER, for instance BLOUSE (LOUSE) and SMITE (MITE). But I tend to find these kind of puzzles easier to solve than some others (for instance the blank ___ type), because they don't require quite so much knowledge of the subject – simply the ability to think laterally about language.

With that out of the way I was able to solve the green CARE FOR A PLANT group, which in turn made it easier to solve BEVERAGES (yellow) and left me with blue by default.

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

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Wednesday, 2 October, game #479)

• YELLOW: PUT ON THE LINE BET, CHANCE, GAMBLE, RISK
• GREEN: USE A KITCHEN KNIFE CUBE, DICE, JULIENNE, SLICE
• BLUE: ROBERT DE NIRO FILMS CASINO, HEAT, JOKER, TAXI DRIVER
• PURPLE: DISTINCTIVE NUMBER OF ARMS (OR LACK THEREOF) OCTOPUS, SHIVA, SLOT MACHINE, VENUS DE MILO

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.