NYT Connections hints and answers for Sunday, October 26 (game #868)

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 Connections hints.

NYT Connections today (game #868) – hint #1 – group hints

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

YELLOW: Making music
GREEN: As said by The Greatest
BLUE: Types of competition
PURPLE: Smaller versions (grammatically)

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 #868) – the answers

NYT Connections answers for game 868 on a purple background — (Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today’s Connections, game #868, are…

YELLOW: KINDS OF INSTRUMENTS BRASS, PERCUSSION, STRING, WIND
GREEN: WORDS IN A FAMOUS MUHAMMAD ALI QUOTE BEE, BUTTERFLY, FLOAT, STING
BLUE: KINDS OF CONTESTS BEAUTY, POPULARITY, STARING, TALENT
PURPLE: WORDS WITH DIMINUTIVE SUFFIXES DOGGY, DROPLET, KITCHENETTE, STARLING

My rating: Hard
My score: 2 mistakes

The NYT is constantly finding new ways to baffle and bamboozle with Connections.

Today, I found the column containing STARLING, STARING, STRING, STING both distracting and impossible to resist putting together as a group – not that I could see the link beyond the recurring five letters.

After I got that wrong, I took another gamble with BEE, BUTTERFLY, FLOAT, STING remembering a singer called Johnny Wakelin and his 1970s hit Black Superman with its chorus of “Muhammad, Muhammad Ali, float like a butterfly, sting like a bee”.

After this triumph I got KINDS OF INSTRUMENTS easily enough but floundered with the final eight tiles and found KINDS OF CONTESTS after a couple of attempts at shuffling. Not exactly the greatest, but I didn’t get knocked out either.

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.