Today’s NYT Connections Hints and Answers for Sept. 20, #1197

Looking for the most recent NYT Connections puzzle answers? CNET publishes daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

In Connections, you look at a grid of 16 words and pick four words that have a connection to each other. You do this four times until all 16 words in the puzzle are grouped. The tough part is that Times associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu chooses words that could fit in multiple groups. The obvious guess — hey! Those are four animals! — is almost always going to be wrong. I’ve compiled my favorite tips for Connections if you need a boost.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle has some very diverse topics. It helps to know your US states and a certain genre of movies. Read on for hints and today’s Connections answers.

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: They have the same shape.

Green group hint: Frankfort.

Blue group hint: Fangs and capes.

Purple group hint: Fun ways to move around.

Read more: We Need to Talk About That Doggone Connections Puzzle

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Round flat things.

Green group: Associated with Kentucky.

Blue group: Vampire movies.

Purple group: ____ boards you ride on.

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is round flat things.

The four answers are Blu-Ray, coaster, sand dollar and tortilla.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is associated with Kentucky.

The four answers are bluegrass, bourbon, derby and fried chicken.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is vampire movies.

The four answers are Blade, Near Dark, Sinners and Twilight.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ____ boards you ride on.

The four answers are hover, skate, snow and surf.

CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of “Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the ’70s and ’80s,” as well as “The Totally Sweet ’90s.” She’s been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She’s Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she’ll be first in line.

See full bio