Welcome to Sunday's Connections. Puzzle #1,246 is live, and below is our usual ladder: the board, then hints that get more specific, then the four groups behind a reveal.
Our read of the board: sixteen plain words with no obvious giveaways, so expect at least one group that only makes sense once the others are gone. 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.
CUTLEAKCONTEXTCARATBUILTBLOWOUTCLARITYCHARREDCOLORKORNINSIGHTEXTENSIONSRIPPEDTRIMJACKEDPERSPECTIVE
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 M, one wordGreen: starts with H, 3 wordsBlue: starts with T, 8 wordsPurple: starts with V, 2 words
Level 2 · One word from each groupYellow contains BUILTGreen contains COLORBlue contains INSIGHTPurple contains LEAK
Level 3 · The category namesYellow category
MUSCULAR
Green category
HAIR SALON SERVICES
Blue category
THINGS THAT HELP MAKE SENSE OF A SITUATION
Purple category
VEGETABLE HOMOPHONES
Today's Connections answers
The full solution to Connections #1,246 is behind the button, yellow to purple. Nothing is shown until you click.
▶ Reveal the answers to Connections #1,246
MUSCULAR
BUILT, CUT, JACKED, RIPPED
Yellow · the most straightforward group
HAIR SALON SERVICES
BLOWOUT, COLOR, EXTENSIONS, TRIM
Green · usually a step harder
THINGS THAT HELP MAKE SENSE OF A SITUATION
CLARITY, CONTEXT, INSIGHT, PERSPECTIVE
Blue · where the red herrings start to bite
VEGETABLE HOMOPHONES
CARAT, CHARRED, KORN, LEAK
Purple · the trickiest, often wordplay
Yesterday's Connections
Connections #1,245 on Saturday, November 7 had these four groups (our full write-up is still up):
PIRATE'S PLUNDERBOOTY, BOUNTY, SPOILS, TREASURE
KINDS OF SHIRTSHENLEY, POLO, RAGLAN, RINGER
FIRST WORDS OF U.S. STATE NAMESNEW, NORTH, RHODE, SOUTH
ENDS OF STORM TYPESCANE, CLONE, EASTER, SOON
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.
That is Sunday's board. If purple got you, you are in good company; see you tomorrow for #1,247.