You're staring at the grid. The colors are muted, the words seem random, and you’ve already burned two mistakes on a "guess" that felt right but was actually a clever trap set by Wyna Liu. It’s Friday, January 16, 2026, and today's NYT Connections is particularly nasty because it plays with your perception of how words function as both nouns and verbs. Honestly, some days the NYT editors just want to see us suffer.
If you're looking for the NYT Connections hint and answer for today, you’ve probably noticed a few words that seem to deal with movement, but they don't quite fit together. That’s the "red herring" doing its job. To solve this without losing your mind, you have to look past the first definition that pops into your head.
The Strategy for January 16
Don't just click things. That sounds obvious, but the biggest mistake people make in Connections is seeing two words that relate—like "Run" and "Sprint"—and immediately hunting for two more. Today, that’s a death sentence for your streak.
Look at the word BOLT. It could mean to run away. It could be a piece of hardware. It could be a flash of lightning. It could even be a roll of fabric. When a word has that many identities, it’s usually the "anchor" for a tricky category. Today’s grid relies heavily on these chameleons.
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If you're stuck, try to group words by their "weight." Some words today feel heavy and physical, while others are more abstract. If you can isolate the abstract group first, the rest of the board starts to clear up. The difficulty spike in the 2026 puzzles has been real, largely because the New York Times has leaned into more linguistic puns rather than just simple synonyms.
Hints for Each Color Category
Maybe you don't want the full answer yet. You just want a nudge. Here’s how the groups are vibing today:
Yellow Group Hint: Think about basic movement. If you were startled by a loud noise, what would you do? These are synonyms for a quick exit.
Green Group Hint: This one is for the DIY crowd or the people who spend too much time in the fastener aisle at Home Depot. It’s all about things that hold stuff together.
Blue Group Hint: Think about a deck of cards or a specific type of social gathering. Or perhaps, what you do when you’re trying to organize a messy situation.
Purple Group Hint: This is the "Word followed by..." or "Word preceded by..." category. Today, it’s a specific object you might find in a kitchen or a workshop. It’s a literal physical item that follows each of these words to make a common phrase.
Today’s Connections Answers by Category
Sometimes you just need to see the logic. Here is the breakdown of the NYT Connections hint and answer for today’s specific groups.
Yellow: To Leave Suddenly
- DASH
- BOLT
- DART
- FLY
This is the most straightforward group on the board, but BOLT and FLY are the traps. You might try to link FLY with things that have wings or BOLT with the hardware category. Don't. In this context, they all just mean "get out of here fast."
Green: Types of Fasteners
- SCREW
- NAIL
- RIVET
- PIN
You might have wanted to put BOLT here. It fits perfectly, right? That’s exactly why it belongs in the Yellow group instead. If you put BOLT here, you'll be one away and stuck in a loop. RIVET is the word that usually trips people up here because we often use it as a verb meaning "to hold someone's attention."
Blue: Ways to Deal (Cards or Problems)
- SHUFFLE
- CUT
- STACK
- BRIDGE
This is a clever one. Most of these are card-playing terms, but they also apply to physical structures or actions. BRIDGE is the pivot point. If you were looking for "Types of Engineering Structures," you might have been looking for words that weren't there.
Purple: _____ Board
- CHESS
- BULLETIN
- EMERY
- SPRING
Purple is always the "meta" category. EMERY board (for nails) and SPRING board (for diving or momentum) are the keys here. Once you see CHESS and BULLETIN, the "Board" connection clicks. It's a classic NYT move to include words that have zero relationship to each other until you add that trailing word.
Why Today’s Puzzle is Tricky
The overlap between BOLT (hardware) and the actual hardware group (SCREW, NAIL, RIVET, PIN) is the primary hurdle. This is a "category overlap" puzzle. The editors at the NYT, like Wyna Liu, often talk about how they build these puzzles to specifically exploit the way the human brain looks for patterns. We are hard-wired to see the most common association first.
According to cognitive linguistic studies, we often categorize words based on "prototypicality." For most people, a BOLT is a prototype of a fastener. By moving it to a movement category, the puzzle forces you to use "lateral thinking," which is the ability to look at an object and see its secondary or tertiary functions.
How to Protect Your Streak Every Day
If you want to stop failing the NYT Connections, you have to change your workflow.
First, never submit a guess until you have identified at least three potential categories. If you only see one group of four, you're flying blind. You don't know if one of those words actually belongs to a group you haven't seen yet.
Second, use the "Shuffle" button. It’s there for a reason. Our brains get "stuck" on the physical position of words on the screen. By shuffling, you break those accidental visual associations and might see a connection you missed because two words were on opposite corners.
Third, look for the Purple category by looking for the "weirdest" word. Today, that word was EMERY. What on earth does EMERY go with? It doesn't mean anything on its own in most contexts. When you see a word like that, start running "suffix/prefix" tests. Emery cloth? Emery board? Emery stone? Once you hit "board," check the other words. Chess board? Yes. Spring board? Yes. Now you've solved the hardest category without even trying.
Actionable Tips for Tomorrow's Grid
- Identify the "Multi-Taskers": Before clicking, find the words that could fit in two places. In today's case, it was BOLT. Isolate these and save them for last.
- Say the Words Out Loud: Sometimes hearing the word helps you find the phrase it belongs to. Saying "Emery" might trigger "Emery Board" faster than just looking at the letters.
- Check for Parts of Speech: If you have three verbs and five nouns, look for the noun that can also be a verb. That's usually your bridge between categories.
- Ignore the Colors: The colors (Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple) represent difficulty, but that difficulty is subjective. Often, the "Blue" category is easier for certain people than the "Yellow" one depending on their hobbies or vocabulary. Don't let the "easy" yellow category frustrate you if you don't see it immediately.
The NYT Connections is less a test of your vocabulary and more a test of your mental flexibility. To stay ahead of the game, you have to be willing to let go of your first instinct and look at the words as empty vessels that can hold multiple meanings.