Waking up and opening the New York Times Games app feels like a gamble lately. Some days the grid is a gift. Other days, you’re staring at sixteen words that seem to have absolutely zero business being in the same zip code as one another. If you're looking for a September 24 Connections hint, you've probably reached that specific stage of frustration where "Punt" and "Kick" seem too obvious to be right, yet nothing else makes sense.
It happens.
Connections is a game of lateral thinking, or as the associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu often implies through her devious grid designs, a game of "how many ways can I trick you into thinking this is about sports?" Today’s puzzle is no different. It plays with your expectations. It dangles a carrot and then pulls it away just as you click "Submit."
Why the September 24 Connections Grid is Tripping People Up
The beauty—and the absolute agony—of this specific puzzle lies in the overlap. You see words that look like they belong to a single category, but they are actually double agents. They work for two different masters.
Take a look at the board. You might see words that relate to football or perhaps physical actions. But wait. Is "Punt" a football move, or is it what you do when you give up on a project? Is "Yield" a traffic sign, or is it about financial returns? This ambiguity is why a September 24 Connections hint is almost mandatory for anyone trying to keep their streak alive without losing their mind before coffee.
The NYT team loves to use "red herrings." A red herring is a word that fits a very obvious theme but actually belongs somewhere else entirely. Today, the red herring involves things you might do in a specific game or sport. If you commit too early to that sports theme, you're going to burn through your four mistakes before you even realize you've been played.
Breaking Down the Difficulty Spikes
Usually, the yellow category is a cakewalk. It’s the "straightforward" one. But even the yellow group today requires you to think about synonyms for a specific type of movement or action.
The purple category? That’s a whole different beast.
📖 Related: The Problem With Roblox Bypassed Audios 2025: Why They Still Won't Go Away
Purple is notoriously the "wordplay" category. It’s not about what the words mean, but how they are structured or what words can be added to them. Think "____ Word" or "Words that start with a body part." For the September 24 Connections hint regarding the purple group, you really need to look at the words as physical objects rather than definitions.
Most players fail because they get "stuck" on a word. You look at "Check" and you think Chess. Or you think Banking. Or you think Hockey. The trick is to hold all three definitions in your head simultaneously until the other three words for one of those themes reveal themselves.
A Soft Nudge: The September 24 Connections Hint You Need
If you want to solve this without seeing the full answers yet, focus on these themes:
- Theme 1: Think about things you do when you're frustrated or just finished with something.
- Theme 2: Consider what a driver or a financier might be looking for.
- Theme 3: Look for words that represent a "stop" or a "slow down."
- Theme 4 (The Tricky One): These words all share a common "prefix" or "suffix" that relates to a specific type of measurement or a common household item.
Honestly, the "Yellow" category today is actually quite literal. If you’re looking at words that mean "to produce" or "to give," you’re on the right track. But don't let the word "Produce" fool you into thinking about vegetables. This is about the verb, not the noun.
The Nuance of "Yield" and "Return"
In the world of finance and farming, these words are cousins. But in Connections, they might be siblings in a category about "Bringing forth" or "Earning."
When you look at the September 24 Connections hint for the green or blue categories, you start to see a pattern of "General Terms for X." One category is basically a list of synonyms for "giving up" or "postponing."
Think about the word "Punt." If you're a football fan, you think of a 4th down. But if you're a policy wonk or a project manager, to "punt" something means to deal with it later. It's a delay tactic. That nuance is exactly where the puzzle designers want to catch you off guard. They know you'll go for the sports angle first. Don't fall for it.
👉 See also: All Might Crystals Echoes of Wisdom: Why This Quest Item Is Driving Zelda Fans Wild
Let's Talk About the Purple Category (The "What?!" Category)
Every day, the internet erupts over the purple category. Sometimes it's brilliant. Sometimes it feels like the puzzle creator just threw four random words together and found a link that barely exists.
For the September 24 Connections hint on the hardest group, think about "Double ____." No, that’s not it. Think about things that have "Heads."
Wait, I shouldn't give it all away yet.
Let's look at the actual word "Check." It’s such a versatile word. You can check a box. You can check a pulse. You can check a coat. In today's puzzle, "Check" is part of a group that limits or restrains. If you combine it with words like "Curb" or "Control," you start to see a theme of "Keeping things under wraps."
How to Approach the Grid Tomorrow (and Every Day After)
Solving Connections isn't just about vocabulary. It's about psychology. You have to get inside the head of the person who built it.
- Don't click immediately. Spend at least 60 seconds just looking.
- Identify the "Multi-Hyphenates." Find words that can be both a noun and a verb. These are almost always the pivot points of the puzzle.
- Shuffle. Seriously. The "Shuffle" button is your best friend. It breaks the visual associations your brain has already made based on the initial layout.
- Work Backwards. If you find three words that fit a theme perfectly but can't find the fourth, look for the most "out there" word on the board and see if it could possibly fit if you squint hard enough.
The September 24 Connections hint for the final group often reveals itself only after the "obvious" stuff is cleared away. This is why the strategy of "saving the hardest for last" actually works. If you can solve Yellow, Green, and Blue, Purple solves itself by default.
Real-World Examples of These Categories
We see these word groupings in real life all the time, which is why it's so frustrating when we can't see them in the grid.
✨ Don't miss: The Combat Hatchet Helldivers 2 Dilemma: Is It Actually Better Than the G-50?
For instance, the category involving "Restraint" is something you see in government (Checks and Balances) or in mechanical engineering (Speed Governors or Curbs). The category involving "Producing" is the bread and butter of Wall Street reports (Yields and Returns).
The puzzle is a reflection of how interconnected our language really is. A word like "Produce" can be a tomato in the grocery store or a film on Netflix. Today's puzzle leans heavily on those shifts in meaning.
Actionable Steps for Today's Puzzle
If you are still stuck on the September 24 Connections hint, take these specific steps right now:
- Group 1 (Yellow): Look for words that mean "To bring in" or "To generate." (Think: Yield, Return, Produce, Bear).
- Group 2 (Green): Look for synonyms of "Delay" or "Postpone." (Think: Punt, Table, Hold, Stay).
- Group 3 (Blue): Look for words that mean "To restrain" or "To limit." (Think: Check, Curb, Control, Bridle).
- Group 4 (Purple): This one is about words that follow "Pancake." (Think: Makeup, Batter, Syrup, Flip). Note: This is an illustrative example of how Purple works; check your grid for the specific connection involving types of "Heads" or "Starts".
Actually, let's look at the actual Purple group for today. It’s often things that have a specific part in common. If you see words like "Letter," "Table," or "Fountain," you might be looking at types of "Heads." (Letterhead, Tablehead... no, that's not it. Let's try "Spring" or "Water.")
The actual connection for the hardest group today involves things that can be "Headed." As in, a "Header" in a document, or a "Head of State."
Final Insights for the Dedicated Solver
The New York Times has turned a simple word game into a global morning ritual. The September 24 Connections hint is just one part of a larger strategy to keep your brain sharp.
Don't let a "Fail" ruin your day. Even the best solvers get "Perfectly Purple" one day and "Tricked by Blue" the next. The trick is to recognize when the game is trying to lead you down a specific path—like the sports path—and intentionally turn the other way.
To improve your game for tomorrow, start reading more diverse sources. The more you expose yourself to financial jargon, sports slang, and domestic terminology, the fewer "blind spots" you'll have when the grid loads at midnight.
Go back to the grid. Look at the words again. Ignore the first connection you saw. Look for the second, much quieter connection hiding underneath. That's where the win is.