The Friday Connections is out. Puzzle #1,244 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: 2 tiles are phrases rather than single words. 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.
BACKUPPICKUPMAKEUPHOT RODFLATBEDFABRICEXTRAWOOLENSTRAFFIC CONESEMICONSTITUTIONREPLACEMENTSPAREOSIRISSTRUCTURETANKER
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 C, one wordGreen: starts with C, one wordBlue: starts with K, 3 wordsPurple: starts with E, 6 words
Level 2 · One word from each groupYellow contains CONSTITUTIONGreen contains EXTRABlue contains SEMIPurple contains WOOLENS
Level 3 · The category namesYellow category
COMPOSITION
Green category
COPY
Blue category
KINDS OF TRUCKS
Purple category
ENDING IN PARTS OF THE EYE
Today's Connections answers
The full solution to Connections #1,244 is behind the button, yellow to purple. Nothing is shown until you click.
▶ Reveal the answers to Connections #1,244
COMPOSITION
CONSTITUTION, FABRIC, MAKEUP, STRUCTURE
Yellow · the most straightforward group
COPY
BACKUP, EXTRA, REPLACEMENT, SPARE
Green · usually a step harder
KINDS OF TRUCKS
FLATBED, PICKUP, SEMI, TANKER
Blue · where the red herrings start to bite
ENDING IN PARTS OF THE EYE
HOT ROD, OSIRIS, TRAFFIC CONE, WOOLENS
Purple · the trickiest, often wordplay
Yesterday's Connections
Connections #1,243 on Thursday, November 5 had these four groups (our full write-up is still up):
KINDS OF HEELSKITTEN, PLATFORM, SPIKE, WEDGE
FLOWERSANEMONE, LOTUS, NARCISSUS, ROSE
TEARDROP-SHAPED THINGSPEAR, RAINDROP, SPEEDBAG, UVULA
LIQUORS WITH LAST LETTERS CHANGEDBRANDO, GIG, RUN, WHISKER
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.
Come back tomorrow for Connections #1,245, and find today's Wordle and the rest of the Puzzles desk in the section menu.