NYT Connections today — hints and answers for Thursday, October 10 (game #487)

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 #487) - today's words

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• HIP
• TEA
• BIG
• BAD
• EYE
• FLY
• SEW
• SAW
• ILL
• FAR
• ELF
• LEG
• HER
• RAD
• ARM
• DOE

NYT Connections today (game #487) - hint #1 - group hints

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

• Yellow: Ear could be another
• Green: Dope words
• Blue: Films
• Purple: All feature in a popular musical song

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 #487) - hint #2 - group answers

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

• YELLOW: BODY PARTS
• GREEN: COOL, IN ’80S SLANG
• BLUE: MOVIES
• PURPLE: WORDS IN “DO-RE-MI”

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

NYT Connections today (game #487) - the answers

The answers to today's Connections, game #487, are…

• YELLOW: BODY PARTS ARM, EYE, HIP, LEG
• GREEN: COOL, IN ’80S SLANG BAD, FLY, ILL, RAD
• BLUE: MOVIES BIG, ELF, HER, SAW
• PURPLE: WORDS IN “DO-RE-MI” DOE, FAR, SEW, TEA

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

As a child of the ‘80s I was delighted to see COOL, IN ’80S SLANG appear as a group today – although I’ll be honest and admit that I was never cool enough to say words like BAD, FLY, ILL or RAD myself very often. But I’ve watched enough ‘80s movies that they’re still in my mind, so solving this one wasn’t too tricky.

In fact, none of today’s four groups were particularly challenging. That didn’t appear to be the case when I loaded up the game, though: it was one of those days where all of the words are really short. In fact, all 16 of them were three-letter words, and though that doesn’t itself make a game hard, there was a strong possibility that some might be prefixes or suffixes, and that can make things tougher.

That wasn’t the case, though. MOVIES was another theme (with ELF, SAW, HER and BIG the answers), while the yellow BODY PARTS group was one of the easiest we’ve ever had in Connections. It was all much simpler than I anticipated, thankfully.

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

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Wednesday, 9 October, game #486)

• YELLOW: EFFERVESCENCE BUBBLES, FIZZ, FOAM, FROTH
• GREEN: BURGEON BLOSSOM, DEVELOP, MATURE, PROGRESS
• BLUE: MUSIC PUBLICATIONS BILLBOARD, MOJO, PITCHFORK, SPIN
• PURPLE: ENDING WITH TABLEWARE BOILERPLATE, BUTTERCUP, JACKKNIFE, WITHERSPOON

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.