Waking up to a fresh grid on the New York Times Games app is a ritual. For many, the Connections Dec 10 2024 puzzle felt like a personal attack by Wyna Liu. It wasn't just hard. It was devious. You know that feeling when you're staring at sixteen words and three of them obviously go together, but the fourth is a ghost? That was Tuesday in a nutshell.
The NYT Connections game has become a cultural staple because it mimics how the human brain actually works—finding patterns in chaos. But on December 10, the chaos won for a lot of people.
Breaking Down the Connections Dec 10 2024 Grid
Let’s look at the words. We had stuff like BOLT, DASH, PINCH, and SMIDGE. Then there was the outlier stuff—DART, FLEE, and FLY. If you were playing that morning, you probably saw the "move fast" category immediately. But the overlap? It was brutal.
The Yellow category, usually the "easy" one, was Small Amount of an Ingredient. The words were DASH, PINCH, SMIDGE, and TAD.
Most people got stuck because DASH also fits perfectly into the "move fast" category. This is what the developers call a "red herring." It’s designed to eat your lives. You see DASH and BOLT and you think, "Easy." Then you realize you have TAD left over and it doesn't fit anywhere. Honestly, it’s enough to make you want to close the tab and go back to Wordle.
The Green Category: Making a Break For It
Green was Run Quickly. We’re talking BOLT, DART, DASH, and FLY.
Wait.
If DASH was in Yellow, then what was in Green? This is where the Connections Dec 10 2024 puzzle got really clever. If you used DASH in the "Small Amount" group, you had to find a fourth word for "Run Quickly." That word was FLEE.
- BOLT
- DART
- FLEE
- FLY
It sounds simple when you read it here. In the heat of the moment? Not so much. People were swearing at their screens because FLY can mean so many things. Is it an insect? Is it a verb? Is it part of a "Zipper" category? (Spoiler: it wasn't, but that would have been a great Blue category).
The Blue Category: Fasteners and Hardware
Blue categories are usually about "Word + Something" or specific themes. For December 10, it was Types of Fasteners.
The words: ANCHOR, BOLT, PIN, RIVET.
Again, look at BOLT. It’s a runner. It’s hardware. It’s a verb. This is the hallmark of a high-difficulty Connections day. You have one word—BOLT—that could legitimately belong in three different groups. It could be "Run Fast," "Hardware," or even "Lightning" if there were other weather words.
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This is why you can't just click the first four words you see. You have to solve the whole grid in your head before you commit. Or, if you’re like me, you just guess and lose three lives in the first thirty seconds.
Purple: The Infamous "Blank" Category
Purple is the wild card. On December 10, the theme was _ _ _ Wheel.
- CHEESE
- FERRIS
- PRAYER
- WAGON
Honestly, this was one of the more straightforward Purple categories we’ve seen lately. Usually, they’re things like "Words that contain a silent Greek letter" or something equally insane. CHEESE wheel and WAGON wheel are common enough that if you had those four words left, the connection clicked pretty fast.
The difficulty of Connections Dec 10 2024 didn't come from the Purple category. It came from the overlap between Yellow, Green, and Blue.
Why We Get Addicted to These Grids
There’s actual science behind why we care about a digital word grid at 7:00 AM. Dr. Jonathan Fader, a clinical psychologist, often talks about "micro-achievements." Completing a puzzle provides a hit of dopamine. It's a small win to start the day.
But when a puzzle is as tricky as the one on December 10, it creates "cognitive dissonance." Your brain is convinced DASH belongs with PINCH, but the game tells you you're wrong. That friction is actually what makes the game "sticky." If it were easy every day, we’d stop playing.
The NYT knows this. They balance the difficulty. December 9 might have been a breeze, but December 10 was a reality check.
Common Mistakes from that Tuesday
If you failed the December 10 puzzle, you probably did one of these things:
- You put DASH in the "Run Fast" category immediately.
- You tried to link PIN and BOLT as "Parts of a Door."
- You thought FLY and DART were about insects or games.
- You forgot that FLEE is a synonym for running, not just escaping.
The trick to winning consistently isn't just knowing the definitions. It's knowing the alternate definitions. Every word in a hard Connections puzzle is a polysemy—a word with multiple meanings.
How to Beat Future Tricky Connections
If you’re still reeling from the Connections Dec 10 2024 layout, you need a better strategy for next time.
First, use the "Shuffle" button. It’s not just for show. Your brain gets locked into seeing words next to each other. If BOLT is next to DASH, you’ll keep thinking they belong together. Shuffling breaks that visual bias.
Second, identify the "Multiple Groupers." In this puzzle, it was BOLT and DASH. Once you see a word that fits two groups, do not click it yet. Find the words that only fit one group. TAD only fits "Small Amount." ANCHOR really only fits "Fasteners" (unless you’re talking about news, but there were no other news words).
By locking in the "uniques," the "multiples" eventually have nowhere else to go.
Actionable Tips for Your Next Grid
- Spend two minutes just looking. Don’t click anything. Identify every possible connection first.
- Look for the "Word + Blank" or "Blank + Word" category early. These are almost always the Purple or Blue groups.
- Say the words out loud. Sometimes hearing the word helps you realize it has another meaning you aren't seeing on the screen.
- Check for parts of speech. If you have seven verbs and one noun, that noun belongs to a different group.
The December 10 puzzle was a masterclass in overlap. It tested your vocabulary, sure, but it mostly tested your patience. Tomorrow’s grid might be easier, or it might be worse. Either way, now you know why BOLT and DASH almost ruined your morning.
Keep your eyes peeled for the "Uniques" and don't let the red herrings win.
Next Steps for Success:
Start your next puzzle by identifying the most obscure word in the grid. Usually, that word has only one possible connection, which acts as the "anchor" (no pun intended) for that entire category. If you can solve the Blue or Purple group first, the rest of the grid usually collapses into place with much less effort.