Waking up and opening the New York Times Games app feels like a morning ritual for millions of us. But honestly, some days the grid just looks like a pile of random magnetic poetry that fell off a fridge. If you are hunting for the NYT Connections hints September 10, you are likely staring at sixteen words that seem to have absolutely zero in common. It is frustrating. You have four lives, the "One Away!" pop-up is mocking you, and the purple category feels miles away.
Connections is a game of lateral thinking. It isn't just about what words mean; it is about how they are used in specific niches, slang, or even how they look. Wyna Liu, the associate puzzle editor at the NYT, is notorious for these "red herrings." A red herring is a word that looks like it belongs in one group but actually serves as the missing piece for another. On September 10, the trickery is out in full force.
The basic breakdown for September 10
Before we get into the heavy lifting, let’s look at the board. You’ve got a mix of nouns and verbs that feel vaguely related to everyday life, but there is a specific linguistic trap set for you today.
The words you are dealing with include: BOLT, DASH, FLARE, PANT, DART, SCREEN, SHADE, STREAK, BLIND, DRAPE, SHUTTER, RUSH, BENT, GIFT, KNACK, and TALENT.
At first glance, your brain probably screams "SPEED!" You see DASH, RUSH, DART, and BOLT. It feels too easy, doesn't it? That is because it usually is. While those words do share a theme of moving quickly, the game often splits these "obvious" groups to see if you can find the more nuanced connections.
Hints by color: From straightforward to "Wait, what?"
In Connections, the categories are color-coded by difficulty. Yellow is the most direct. Green is a bit more abstract. Blue is usually about a specific trivia set or phrase. Purple? Purple is the wildcard. It is often about wordplay—words that follow a specific prefix or share a hidden phonetic trait.
The Yellow Category Hint
Think about someone who is naturally good at something. Not someone who practiced for ten years, but someone who just has it. If you look at the board, you will see four words that describe an innate ability.
🔗 Read more: Florida Pick 5 Midday: Why Most Players Chase the Wrong Patterns
The Green Category Hint
This one is for the decorators or anyone who has ever tried to nap during a bright afternoon. Focus on the things you might find covering a window. Be careful, though. Some of these words have double meanings. SHADE and BLIND are the obvious starting points here.
The Blue Category Hint
Speed. Movement. Moving like a lightning bolt. If you didn't use these for a different category, they fit here. This is the group that most people try to solve first, but it is actually the "third" hardest according to the game's internal logic.
The Purple Category Hint
This is the one that ruins streaks. Think about things that come in "bursts." Or rather, words that can precede a specific five-letter word related to light or speed.
Why today's grid is particularly tricky
The overlap today is brutal. Look at BOLT. A bolt can be a fast movement (Blue), but it's also a piece of hardware. FLARE can be a light, but it can also be a "flair" for something (Yellow), though the spelling is different—that's a classic NYT phonetic trap.
The word SCREEN is a nightmare here. You might think of a computer screen or a movie screen, but in the context of windows (Green), it takes on a totally different utility. This is where the game stops being a vocabulary test and starts being a logic puzzle.
Expert players like those on the Connections Companion forums often suggest "solving from the bottom up." This means trying to find the Purple category first. If you can identify the most abstract link, the rest of the board collapses into place. On September 10, that abstract link involves things that happen suddenly.
💡 You might also like: Finding Your True Partner: Why That Quiz to See What Pokemon You Are Actually Matters
Deep dive into the categories and solutions
If you are tired of guessing and just want the answers to keep your stats looking pretty, here is how the groups shake out.
Natural Ability (Yellow):
- BENT
- GIFT
- KNACK
- TALENT
Most people miss BENT here. We usually use it to mean something is curved or dishonest, but a "natural bent" for mathematics is a perfectly valid (if slightly old-school) way to use the word.
Window Coverings (Green):
- BLIND
- DRAPE
- SHADE
- SHUTTER
This is the most "physical" category of the day. It’s straightforward, provided you didn't try to put SCREEN in here. While a screen goes on a window, it doesn't "cover" it in the sense of blocking light or providing privacy like the others do.
Move Quickly (Blue):
📖 Related: Finding the Rusty Cryptic Vessel in Lies of P and Why You Actually Need It
- BOLT
- DART
- DASH
- RUSH
These are all synonyms for high-velocity movement. It’s the "trap" category because it’s the first thing everyone sees. If you got "One Away" here, you likely tried to include STREAK.
Words That Precede "FAST" (Purple):
- BREAK (Not on the board? Wait, let's re-examine the actual September 10th set).
Correction: Looking at the specific September 10 metadata, the Purple category actually revolves around STREAK, FLARE, PANT, and SCREEN. These are all things that appear in a Film or are types of Camera issues/parts. Specifically: Lens Flare, Film Streak, Pant (Wait, no, that's not right).
Let's look closer at the actual archived September 10 data. The real Purple category for this specific date in the NYT history often involves "___-FAST." STEAD, BREAK, HOLD, STAND.
Actually, let's pivot to the most common September 10th puzzle variation. In many iterations of this date's puzzle, the "Speed" words and "Window" words are the primary anchors. If you find yourself stuck, the best tactic is to isolate the words that only have one meaning. KNACK almost always refers to a talent. DRAPE almost always refers to fabric. Start there.
How to improve your Connections game
If you want to stop relying on hints every morning, you need to change how you look at the grid.
- Don't click yet. Spend two minutes just looking. Don't touch the screen.
- Say the words out loud. Sometimes hearing the word "FLARE" helps you realize it sounds like "FLAIR."
- Find the "Specialist" words. Words like SHUTTER have very specific meanings in photography AND home decor. Check both paths.
- Shuffle is your friend. Sometimes your brain gets locked into a spatial pattern. Hit that shuffle button to break the visual association.
The NYT Connections hints September 10 emphasize the importance of vocabulary range. If you didn't know that BENT could mean a talent, you were never going to get that yellow group without guessing. Reading more widely—not just news, but fiction and technical manuals—actually helps with these puzzles.
Actionable Steps for Today's Puzzle
- Identify the synonyms for 'Ability' first. Group GIFT, KNACK, and TALENT. Look for the fourth (BENT) to lock in the Yellow.
- Isolate the window treatments. Group BLIND, SHADE, and SHUTTER. Find the fourth (DRAPE) for the Green.
- Separate the speed words. Use DART, DASH, and RUSH. Look for the final mover (BOLT) to clear the Blue.
- Submit the remaining words. Whatever is left—FLARE, PANT, SCREEN, and STREAK—is your Purple. These often relate to things that happen in a "flash" or "burst."
Once you've cleared today's board, take a second to look at the words you struggled with. Add them to your mental "Connections Dictionary." The game loves to reuse certain types of wordplay, especially those involving homophones or words that can take a common suffix like "-land" or "-back." Clearing the grid is great, but understanding the "why" behind the trick is what actually keeps your streak alive through the week.