NYT Connections hint and answers today: September 21 (#102)

New York Times Connection puzzle hints and answers
(Image credit: Future)

Whether you want to save a rough game of Connections with instant access to today's answers or would rather read a few hints for the September 21 (#102) game, everything you need to win your way is only a quick scroll away.

Today's yellow Connections came in seconds for me—it's just a shame about all the rest. I almost had every single one, the only issue was I kept getting bits of one of the others muddled up in there too. I just barely scraped through this one, although it was a very close call towards the end. As always with Connections, it all looks obvious in hindsight!

NYT Connections hint today: Thursday, September 21

One helping hand, coming right up. 

🟨🟨🟨🟨

Yellow: Meals out need these hardworking people to make them happen. 

🟩🟩🟩🟩

Green: Engine-powered transport is the theme here. 

🟦🟦🟦🟦

Blue: It's time to play the music, it's time to light the lights, it's time to meet the…? 

🟪🟪🟪🟪

Purple: There are a million ways of describing hands, feet, or parts of them—including these words. 

NYT Connections puzzle

(Image credit: NYT)

Don't scroll any further until you're ready for the full answers!

NYT Connections answer today: Thursday, September 21 (#102) 

Go on, save your game—we won't tell anyone. 

  • 🟨 Yellow: Bartender, Chef, Host, Server (Restaurant workers) 
  • 🟩 Green: Bus, Car, Motorcycle, Truck (Motor vehicles) 
  • 🟦 Blue: Animal Beaker, Gonzo, Scooter (Muppets) 
  • 🟪 Purple: Digit, Dog, Mitt, Piggy (Hand and foot related slang) 

More about the New York Times' Connections puzzle game

Connections is the NYT's latest popular puzzle game where you have to find the common thread that ties four seemingly unrelated words together. Can you find all four increasingly challenging groups of words before you make four mistakes? Don't forget: every day only has one solution even if some words look like they could belong to more than one group, and you can (and should) shuffle the grid as many times as you need to. It can help jog your brain into reading the words in a different way.

If you enjoy Connections, you should check out the board game Codenames. It's a popular party game that tasks players with using clues to guess certain words from a grid. As in Connections, the heart of the game lies in how many different possible interpretations the words could have. Connections also clearly owes a debt to Wordle, the hit puzzle game that the New York Times bought in 2022. Perhaps most obvious is the way it uses colored emojis to let you share the results of your puzzle with other players on social media: 

Connections
Puzzle #80

🟦🟪🟦🟦
🟦🟪🟦🟦
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩

Each color corresponds to one grouping of four words; a row with mixed colors shows you incorrectly guessed one or more words in a group that didn't totally match. The rows also show what order you solved the Connections puzzle in. The rows aren't all created equal: the New York Times ranks them from "straightforward" to "tricky" starting with yellow and progressing to purple.

🟨🟩🟦🟪

Want to show up your Connections friends or just challenge yourself? Try to start by identifying the purple words first and nailing them with your very first guess!

Kerry Brunskill
Contributing Writer

When baby Kerry was brought home from the hospital her hand was placed on the space bar of the family Atari 400, a small act of parental nerdery that has snowballed into a lifelong passion for gaming and the sort of freelance job her school careers advisor told her she couldn't do. She's now PC Gamer's word game expert, taking on the daily Wordle puzzle to give readers a hint each and every day. Her Wordle streak is truly mighty.

Somehow Kerry managed to get away with writing regular features on old Japanese PC games, telling today's PC gamers about some of the most fascinating and influential games of the '80s and '90s.

Read more
Today's Wordle being played on a phone
Today's Wordle answer for Friday, March 21
Today's Wordle being played on a phone
Today's Wordle answer for Tuesday, March 4
Wordle today being played on a phone
Today's Wordle answer for Monday, January 6
Wordle today puzzle on a smartphone
Today's Wordle answer for Thursday, March 20
Wordle today being played on a phone
Today's Wordle answer for Sunday, February 9
Wordle today puzzle on a smartphone
Today's Wordle answer for Thursday, January 30
Latest in Puzzle
An image of a golden first place award from Geoguessr
'We're actually getting GeoGuessr on Steam before GTA 6': the Google Street View puzzler arrives on Valve's platform this April
World of Goo 2 a giant octopus-worm spits out a structure of goo upon which other goo is flowing.
After launching as an Epic Store exclusive, World of Goo 2 dribbles onto Steam this spring: 'We’re grateful to Epic for funding development of the game'
Wordle today puzzle on a smartphone
Today's Wordle answer for Wednesday, March 26
Today's Wordle being played on a phone
Today's Wordle answer for Tuesday, March 25
Wordle answers
Today's Wordle answer for Monday, March 24
A sign reads "HATRED IS POWER"
A demo for a lost videogame based on George Orwell's 1984 has emerged from the memory hole
Latest in News
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
The new Prime Asset featured in the upcoming update for the Outlast Trials.
The Outlast Trials puts its already paranoid players under surveillance for a time-limited story event