The Friday Connections is out. Puzzle #1,251 is below, from a gentle read of the board to the complete colour-coded answer, with every spoiler kept behind a click.
Our read of the board: one tile is a phrase rather than a single word. As always, the purple group is the one built to mislead; if you see an obvious category of five or six words, that is the trap.
Today's board
The sixteen words, in the order they appear on the board. No spoilers here.
PRESSBARGESCROLLWATER SKIERSURFTEASERWAVESTRAILERTRUSTEXPOSURESEARCHFREEZECOVERAGEGLIDERPUBLICITYBROWSE
Hints for today's Connections
Three levels of help. Level one nudges, level two points, level three names the categories one at a time.
Level 1 · The categories, by first letterYellow: starts with U, 3 wordsGreen: starts with M, 2 wordsBlue: starts with T, 4 wordsPurple: starts with B, one word
Level 2 · One word from each groupYellow contains BROWSEGreen contains EXPOSUREBlue contains TRAILERPurple contains WAVES
Level 3 · The category namesYellow category
USE THE INTERNET
Green category
MEDIA ATTENTION
Blue category
THINGS THAT ARE TOWED
Purple category
BRAIN ___
Today's Connections answers
The full solution to Connections #1,251 is behind the button, yellow to purple. Nothing is shown until you click.
▶ Reveal the answers to Connections #1,251
USE THE INTERNET
BROWSE, SCROLL, SEARCH, SURF
Yellow · the most straightforward group
MEDIA ATTENTION
COVERAGE, EXPOSURE, PRESS, PUBLICITY
Green · usually a step harder
THINGS THAT ARE TOWED
BARGE, GLIDER, TRAILER, WATER SKIER
Blue · where the red herrings start to bite
BRAIN ___
FREEZE, TEASER, TRUST, WAVES
Purple · the trickiest, often wordplay
Yesterday's Connections
Connections #1,250 on Thursday, November 12 had these four groups (our full write-up is still up):
"GADZOOKS!"GOOD HEAVENS, GREAT SCOTT, HOLY SMOKES, JIMINY CRICKET
STARTING WITH VARIATIONSCHANGE PURSE, FLUX CAPACITOR, SHIFT DRESS, SWING SET
ENDING IN WAYS TO COOK THINGSARCTIC CHAR, COMEDY ROAST, DOC BROWN, YOU'RE TOAST
STARTING WITH BEST PICTURE OSCAR WINNERSGLADIATOR SANDALS, MARTY MCFLY, MOONLIGHT SONATA, ROCKY ROAD
How Connections works
Sixteen words hide four groups of four that share something in common. Pick four, submit, and the row locks in if you are right; four wrong submissions end the game. The groups are colour-coded by difficulty, yellow being the most direct and purple the most devious, and most boards include at least one word that could plausibly sit in two groups. Today's puzzle was edited by Wyna Liu at The New York Times.
A reliable habit: before submitting anything, find the five or six words that seem to belong to one obvious category and work out which of them is the imposter. Solving the strange group first is often easier than solving the obvious one.
Connections resets at midnight in your local time zone. We will be back tomorrow with the hints for #1,252.