NYT Connections hints today for #981: Clues and answers for Monday, February 16

Have you figured out today's groups for the New York Times Connections word game yet? This one was super hard for me to solve today, so I'll share some hints (and spoilers if you want them) to help you get through Monday's puzzle: #981. Don't feel bad for taking a peek — these puzzles are designed to confuse you.

Since we're in this together, I'll share how I did each day. I made three mistakes today. Here's the order I solved all the groups in: green, purple, blue, yellow.

If you're new to NYT Connections, we've got some tips to help you along the way. Also, check out today's Wordle hints and answer, as well as today’s Strands hints and answers.

What is Connections?

Connections is a surprisingly difficult word game created by the New York Times staff, and if you play, you're now considered a "connector." The goal is to figure out the theme of all four groups and four words per group that have something in common.

How to play NYT Connections

Upon opening Connections, it may look confusing. There are 16 words presented in a four-by-four grid and your goal is to match four words into their respective color-coded groups (yellow, green, blue, purple). Yellow is the easiest to guess while purple is the hardest.

Your job is to find out how the four words are connected to a specific group — there's always a theme. For instance, in one recent puzzle, the blue group hint was "related to buying a home" and the words were appraisal, escrow, insurance and mortgage.

If you make a mistake when you submit, that's okay. You get four guesses before the game is over and the answers are revealed. You can also click on the lightbulb icon in the game to get some hints, but we'll also provide those here.

If you find yourself obsessed with this game after completing just one puzzle, I've got bad news for you. You can only play once a day. The timer resets each night at midnight.

Tips for playing NYT Connections

I only recently started playing Connections, but here are some tips I've found useful along the way.

1. When you get an answer wrong, pay attention to the text that appears at the top of the puzzle. "One away" means you only got one word wrong. Analyze each word to find one that might fit better in another group and try a new word.

2. If you're stuck, shuffle the board. You can shuffle as many times as you'd like to help you see some different word combinations.

3. Try to find the easy yellow group words first. Those words usually stick out because they have so much in common — they're often synonyms of one another. But be wary of the trick words that could fit into multiple categories.

4. Stumped? Come back to the puzzle later with a fresher mind. Trying to solve a difficult puzzle without "sleeping" on it might result in too many mistakes.

Today's NYT Connections hints

Check out these hints if you're having a hard time grouping them together.

I'll give you my own hints:

Yellow group: So funny

Green group: Words that sound the same

Blue group: Bawk-bawk (egg-laying animal noises)

Purple group: How one responds to trauma

Here's one word from each group:

Yellow group hint word: Hoot

Green group hint word: Doh

Blue group hint word: Cackle

Purple group hint word: Freeze

Okay, on to the official group names for a bigger hint. If you don't want to know what those are, then stop scrolling.

NYT Connections group names

Here are the group names for today's puzzle.

Yellow group: Knee slapper

Green group: Homophones

Blue group: Sounds a chicken makes

Purple group: Stress responses

Warning, spoilers ahead! If you scroll past this, the answers are right below.

Final warning! Last chance to go back and finish the game.

Today's NYT Connections answers (spoilers)

Here are the Connections groups and the words that go with them.

Yellow group: Knee slapper (hoot, laugh, riot, scream)

Green group: Homophones (do, doe, doh, dough)

Blue group: Sounds a chicken makes (buck, cackle, cluck, squawk)

Purple group: Stress responses (fawn, fight, flight, freeze)

My results today

Why were the blue and yellow groups so hard?! I struggled so much with this one. I guessed cackle, squawk, hoot and laugh — wrong. I tried cluck, hoot, cackle and squawk — also wrong but I got the one away message. I also tried cluck, squawk, laugh and cackle — one away. Buck was the word I couldn't figure out.

🟨🟦🟨🟦

🟦🟨🟦🟦

🟩🟩🟩🟩

🟪🟪🟪🟪

🟨🟦🟦🟦

🟦🟦🟦🟦

🟨🟨🟨🟨

Previous NYT Connections answers

If you missed any Connections from the past several days, you can find the answers here.

Sunday, February 15

• Yellow group: Reference books (atlas, dictionary, encyclopedia, thesaurus)

• Green group: Something that brings back memories (echo, reminder, trace, vestige)

• Blue group: Kinds of complexes (Electra, Inferiority, Oedipus, Superiority)

• Purple group: Starting with ways to reach someone via phone (buzzard, calliope, dialect, ringmaster)

Saturday, February 14

• Yellow group: Uptick (hike, jump, rise, spike)

• Green group: Protuberance (bump, hump, lump, mound)

• Blue group: Tom Hanks roles (Gump, Phillips, Sully, Woody)

• Purple group: Words before "mint" (breath, junior, pepper, spear)

Friday, February 13

• Yellow group: Downright (pure, sheer, stark, utter)

• Green group: Pennant (banner, colors, flag, standard)

• Blue group: Cigarette brands (Camel, Kent, Parliament, Salem)

• Purple group: Homophones of ways to get smaller (lesson, reseed, sync, wayne)

Thursday, February 12

• Yellow group: Construct (form, make, mold, produce)

• Green group: Fixed in place (fast, firm, frozen, tight)

• Blue group: MLB player, for short (A, Card, Jay, Yank)

• Purple group: ___ Queen (Dairy, Dancing, drag, May)

Wednesday, February 11

• Yellow group: Act lovestruck (moon, pine, swoon, yearn)

• Green group: Earnings (gain, net, return, yield)

• Blue group: Compact mass (block, brick, cake, puck)

• Purple group: Roller ___ (bag, coaster, derby, rink)

Thanks for reading! Share how you did today in the comments.