NYT Connections Answer

Welcome to another daily breakdown of the NYT Connections puzzle! If you’re here, you might be scratching your head over a few tricky word pairings, or perhaps you just want to see if your intuition was right.

Today’s puzzle for December 11, 2025, offers a satisfying mix of literal objects and clever wordplay. We’ve got some backyard staples, a bit of linguistic gymnastics, and a classic "fill-in-the-blank" category that might just leave you in the dust if you aren’t careful.

Here is the solution and answer for 2025-12-11.

Puzzle Hints for December 11

Before we reveal the answers, here are some NYT Connections hints to help you solve it on your own:

• Yellow Category: Think about what you might find if you stepped out the back door of a suburban home.
• Green Category: These four words all share the exact same four letters, just rearranged.
• Blue Category: Say these words out loud. They each sound like a single letter of the alphabet.
• Purple Category: All of these words can follow the same four-letter word associated with cleaning or dry climates.

Today’s Connections Answers

Yellow: THINGS SEEN IN A YARD

These are common items found in a typical backyard or garden setting.

• GNOME
• GRILL
• SHED
• SPRINKLER

Green: ANAGRAMS

This category is a favorite of the NYT editors. Each of these words is formed using the letters A, E, R, and S.

• ARES (The Greek god of war)
• EARS (What you’re using to listen)
• SEAR (To burn the surface of something)
• SERA (The plural of serum)

Blue: LETTER HOMOPHONES

When you pronounce these words, they sound exactly like a specific letter of the alphabet.

• ARE (Sounds like "R")
• ELLE (Sounds like "L")
• QUE (Sounds like "Q")
• QUEUE (Also sounds like "Q"!)

Purple: DUST ___

These words all form common phrases or compound words when preceded by the word "Dust."

• BOWL (The Dust Bowl of the 1930s)
• BUNNY (Those pesky clumps of hair and lint under the bed)
• DEVIL (A small whirlwind or a brand of hand vacuum)
• JACKET (The paper cover on a hardcover book)

Why Today’s Puzzle Was Tricky

Today’s challenge relied heavily on phonetic awareness and spelling. The Blue Category was particularly devious because it included both QUE and QUEUE. While they are spelled differently and have different meanings, they both function as homophones for the letter "Q."

The Green Category required you to look past the meanings of the words and focus on their construction. If you were looking for a mythological connection with ARES, you might have been led astray!

Finally, the Purple Category featured JACKET, which is often the hardest one to spot. We usually think of "dusting" a jacket (the clothing), but the "Dust Jacket" of a book is a very specific term that puzzle fans should keep in their back pockets.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you play NYT Connections?

In Connections, you are presented with a grid of 16 words. Your goal is to group them into four sets of four based on a common theme. Each group is color-coded by difficulty: Yellow (easiest), Green, Blue, and Purple (trickiest).

When does the NYT Connections reset?

The puzzle resets daily at midnight in your local time zone.

Can there be more than one right answer?

While some words might seem to fit into multiple categories (this is called a "red herring"), there is only one unique solution that satisfies all four categories perfectly.

Check back tomorrow for more hints and the latest solutions!