Friday is here. You’ve got your coffee, you’ve opened the New York Times Games app, and suddenly you’re staring at sixteen words that make absolutely zero sense together. We have all been there. If you are looking for NYT Connections hints Jan 24, you are likely staring at a screen wondering why "Mercury" and "Ford" are sitting next to each other, or if "Swing" refers to music or a playground.
The beauty of Wyna Liu’s daily creation is the misdirection. It's the "red herrings." It is the way she makes you think a category is about cars when it is actually about something completely different. Today’s puzzle is a classic example of that psychological warfare. Let’s get you through it without burning all your mistakes before you’ve even found the first group.
Why Today’s Connections is Tripping Everyone Up
Most people approach Connections by looking for the most obvious link first. That's usually a mistake. Today, the Jan 24 puzzle relies heavily on words that have multiple identities. You see a word like "Lead" and you think of a pencil or a starring role in a play. You see "Mercury" and you think of the planet or the element.
This specific date’s puzzle—January 24, 2026—hits that sweet spot of difficulty. It isn't impossible. It's just sneaky. The "Yellow" group, which is usually the straightforward one, feels a bit more abstract today. Meanwhile, the "Purple" group—the one everyone fears—actually uses a linguistic trick that is quite clever once you see it.
Honestly, the hardest part of solving these is the "overlap." That is when five or six words could all fit into one category. You have to find the four that only fit together, leaving the others for their rightful homes. It’s a process of elimination that feels like a logic puzzle masquerading as a word game.
General Strategies for the NYT Connections Hints Jan 24
Before we get into the specific clues, let’s talk about how to look at this board. If you’re stuck, stop clicking. Seriously. Take a breath.
- Say the words out loud. Sometimes the way a word sounds reveals a pun that your eyes missed.
- Check for parts of speech. Are all these words nouns? Or are some verbs? If you have three verbs and one noun that "sorta" fits, keep looking.
- Look for prefixes and suffixes. Wyna Liu loves a "Words that start with..." or "Words that end with..." category.
- Ignore the colors. The game tells you Yellow is easy and Purple is hard, but your brain might find the "hard" one first. Don't overthink the difficulty level.
The NYT Connections hints Jan 24 often revolve around themes of Americana, science, and common household phrases. Today is no different. You’ll find that a few words might seem to belong to a "Space" theme, while others look like they belong in a "Music" category. Be careful. One of those is almost certainly a trap.
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Breakdowns by Category (Without Giving it All Away)
The Yellow Group: Getting Started
This is the foundational group. Think about things that vary in intensity or level. If you were looking at a scale or a gauge, what words would you use to describe the movement? It’s about progression. You’ve likely used these words when talking about a thermostat or maybe even a political debate.
The Green Group: A Bit More Specific
This group is for the gearheads or the DIY enthusiasts. Or maybe just anyone who has ever sat in a driver’s seat. Look at the words that relate to mechanical operations. Not just cars, but the physical act of making something move or change state. If you find yourself thinking about a garage, you are on the right track.
The Blue Group: The Thematic Link
This is where the misdirection usually lives. These words might look like they are about science or history, but they actually share a very specific commonality in their names. Think about things that are named after people, or perhaps things that all share a specific physical property. It’s a bit more "trivia-based" than the others.
The Purple Group: The Final Boss
As always, Purple is about the structure of the words themselves. It’s rarely about what the words mean. Instead, it’s about what you can add to them or how they are used in a very specific phrase. If you are left with four words that seemingly have nothing in common, look for a "blank" phrase. Like "___ Paper" or "___ Cat."
Deep Dive: The Logic Behind Jan 24
Let's look at some of the specific words causing trouble today. Take "Mercury." It could be a planet. It could be a car brand. It could be an element. In the NYT Connections hints Jan 24, its placement is vital because it anchors one of the trickier categories.
Then you have "Swing." You might think of "Swing music" or "Swing set." But what if it’s a verb? To swing a vote? To swing a hammer? This is where the game gets you. You have to test each word in multiple contexts before you commit to a group.
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The real trick today is identifying the "Double Meanings." Several words on the board today function as both nouns and verbs. If you can categorize them by their secondary meaning, the whole puzzle usually falls into place. It’s like a Sudoku made of language; one correct placement reveals three more.
Common Mistakes to Avoid Today
Don't fall for the "Space" trap. It’s very easy to see two or three words and assume there’s a category about the solar system. There isn't. At least, not in the way you think.
Also, watch out for the "Brands" trap. Just because you see a couple of names that could be companies doesn't mean the category is "Car Brands." Often, the game uses brands that are also common nouns to confuse you.
Another tip: if you’ve found three words that definitely work together, don’t just guess the fourth. Look at the remaining twelve words. If two of them could fit that fourth spot, you don't have the right category yet. You need to find the one word that only fits there.
How to Solve Connections if You're Down to Your Last Life
If you’ve got one mistake left and you’re staring at the NYT Connections hints Jan 24 with sweat on your brow, use the "Shuffle" button. It sounds simple, but it breaks the visual patterns your brain has already built. Sometimes seeing "Mercury" next to "Lead" instead of next to "Mars" (if Mars were there, which it isn't—that's a hypothetical) changes your entire perspective.
Actually, let’s talk about "Lead" for a second. Is it the metal (pronounced led) or the action (pronounced leed)? In Connections, it’s often both. You have to be flexible with your internal monologue.
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Actionable Next Steps for Success
To get better at this, you should start keeping a mental (or physical) note of the "Wynaisms." These are the recurring tropes the editor uses.
- Check for "Body Parts" hiding in words. (e.g., "Hand" in "Handled").
- Look for "Homophones." Words that sound the same but are spelled differently.
- Identify "Synonyms for 'Nonsense'." The game loves words like "Bunk," "Hogwash," or "Rot."
- Practice the "Blank" technique. If you’re stuck, try putting "Space," "Work," or "Life" before or after every word on the board to see if a phrase emerges.
For today, focus on the "levels of intensity" and "mechanical parts." If you can lock those two in, the rest of the board becomes a 50/50 shot, which are much better odds than you started with.
The Jan 24 puzzle is a testament to how flexible the English language is. It challenges you to stop looking at words as fixed definitions and start seeing them as puzzle pieces with multiple edges. Once you crack it, the feeling of "Aha!" is exactly why we keep coming back every morning.
Final Tips for Your Daily Streak
Keep your streak alive by never submitting a guess until you are 90% sure of at least two categories. If you can solve two, the remaining eight words are much easier to parse. Most players fail because they rush the "Yellow" and "Green" groups and then realize they used a word they needed for "Purple."
Slow down. The puzzle isn't going anywhere. Whether you solve it in two minutes or two hours, the satisfaction is the same. Good luck with the Jan 24 puzzle—you're going to need it for that tricky Blue category.
Next Steps for Mastery:
Once you’ve finished today’s puzzle, go back and look at the categories you missed. Write down the theme. You’ll start to notice that while the words change, the logic of the categories often repeats on a cycle of about six weeks. Understanding the "mind of the editor" is the ultimate cheat code for NYT Connections.