Do you like making connections in life? No, I am not talking about the ones on LinkedIn, but NYT’s much-hyped Connections game. Unlike the social media app, creating a connection in the game is pretty easy as you need to categorize four similar words into a category. It’s a simple yet challenging game that can test your wits as well as your vocabulary skills. So, without any further ado, here are the answers and hints for today’s NYT Connections #953 for January 19, 2026.
Today’s NYT Connections #953 Hints for January 19, 2026
- Yellow category hint : Someone who is just starting out or lacks worldly experience.
- Green category hint: Slang terms for a very large amount of money.
- Blue category hint : Fundamental properties in physics often taught in introductory science.
- Purple category hint: Each of these words can follow the same four-letter adjective meaning “fast.”
Did you guess all the words? Let’s take a look at them below.
Today’s NYT Connections #953 Answer for January 19, 2026
- Yellow Category: Budding, Fresh, Naive, New (INEXPERIENCED)
- Green Category : Bundle, Fortune, Mint, Wad (🤑)
- Blue Category: Current, Length, Mass, Time (MEASURED BY SI UNITS)
- Purple Category: Fix, Sand, Silver, Study (WORDS AFTER “QUICK”)
What do you think of today’s NYT Connections puzzle?
Today’s Connections puzzle offered a great mix of literal and lateral thinking. Yellow and Green felt relatively accessible, as the synonyms for being “green” or having “green” (money) were quite thematic. The shift into Blue required a quick dip into high school science, which provided a nice intellectual pivot. Purple was the standout here; the connection is clever because the words themselves don’t seem to share a common thread until you find that specific prefix. It was a well-balanced puzzle, a solid 4 out of 5 for how neat it was.
You can also checkout today’s answers for other NYT puzzles :
- NYT Strands Puzzle Answers
- NYT Wordle Answers
- NYT Spelling Bee Answers
- NYT PIPS Answers
- NYT Mini Crossword
How to Play NYT Connections
Playing NYT Connections is pretty straightforward, as you need to group four similar words in a single group . However, the difficulty increases, with the yellow category being the easiest and purple being the hardest. The green category refers to moderate difficulty, while blue is complex, being one notch above.
There are 16 words in each puzzle , and there is a theme for each group, although the puzzle doesn’t reveal it. You only get four chances to correctly guess every group’s meaning; you can have four incorrect guesses, so use them wisely. If the answer is correct, you can move on to the next group; otherwise, you are stuck with the same one.
Moreover, just like Wordle, Connections refreshes every 24 hours, so you will need to wait till the next day for a fresh one. Also, if you guess incorrectly, there’s no way to play the game again, and it will simply reveal the correct results.
While playing the game itself does not require an NYT connection, you will need to create one if you wish to track your progress. You can also share your results by copying them to the clipboard and pasting them wherever you want.
