NYT Connections puzzle hint and answer for Wednesday, September 6 (#87)

(Image credit: Future)

Some days that final pair of Connections just can't seem to untangle themselves—not before you've run out of attempts, anyway. Save your game, your nerves, and your stats in an instant with a little look at every single answer for the Wednesday September 6 (87) puzzle, or just give yourself a nudge in the right direction with today's hints if you'd prefer.

I solved today's Connections in a strange order, leaping straight from the yellow group to the purple and somehow saving the greens until last. It made sense at the time and besides, a win's a win.

NYT Connections hint today: Wednesday, September 6

Yellow: What sort of monsters show up in fairy tales?

NYT Connections answer today: Wednesday, September 6 (87)

Yellow: Gnome, Goblin, Ogre, Troll

Green: Bud, Leaf, Petal, Stalk

Blue: Agent, Mole, Plant, Spy

Purple: Dragon, Horse, Rabbit, Tiger

More about New York Times Connections

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!

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.