Today's NYT Connections hints and answers — Tuesday, February 13, #247

Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers — Tuesday, February 13, #247

Looking for today’s Connections answers? The Connections answers on February 13 for puzzle #247 are easier than yesterday’s, with the Connections Companion rating this puzzle’s difficulty at 2.7 out of 5.

Every day, we update this article with Connections hints and tips to help you find all 4 of today’s answers. And if the hints aren’t enough, you’ll find all 4 answers below, with the category titles and the correlating words. Plus, we’re including a reflection on yesterday’s puzzle, #246, in case you’re reading this in a different time zone.

Spoilers lie ahead for Connections #247. Only read on if you want to know today’s Connections answers.

Alternatively, visit our how to play NYT Connections guide for tips on how to solve the puzzle without our help.

Today’s Connections answer — hints to help you solve it

Unlike our guide to today’s Wordle answer, where we recommend the best Wordle start words as your strategy, solving Connections relies on identifying connecting categories among 16 words. Each category’s difficulty level is represented by a color; yellow is the easiest grouping, and purple is the most challenging. Once you’ve made 4 mistakes in your guesses, the answers will be revealed, so hints can be helpful.

If you need hints to solve the groupings, then here are the themes of each, based on the order of difficulty:

• 🟨 Yellow: You can do it!
• 🟩 Green: Circular snacks
• 🟦 Blue: Shopping cart required
• 🟪 Purple: Collect $200 when passing… 

These hints should get you at least some of the way towards finding today’s Connections answers. If not, then you can read on for bigger clues; or, if you just want to know the answer, then scroll down further.

Alright then, here’s a larger hint: Today’s Connections might well make you feel a bit hungry, given that it looks like a confused grocery list. But try not to go around in circles, for you’ll be rewarded by considering the shape of certain foods.

Today’s Connections answers

So, what are today’s Connections answers for game #247?

Drumroll, please…

• 🟨 Encourage with “on”: Egg, Goad, Spur, Urge
• 🟩 Spherical foods: Jawbreaker, Meatball, Mozzarella, Orange
• 🟦 Grocery store aisles: Dairy, Frozen, Produce, Snack
• 🟪 Go _______: Bananas, Figure, Fish, Steady

Today’s Connections puzzle is not one to be tackled on an empty stomach. Bananas, Egg, Meatball, Mozzarella… it all reads like items being ticked off at the grocery store.

And on that subject, it appeared that one category might be exactly that. Dairy, Frozen, Fish, and Produce could all be aisles at our local store. I duly submitted my selection, only to find I was one away. Hmm, clean up on aisle three!

As I often do, I parked that line of thinking in the hope of finding a result elsewhere, and I was duly encouraged when I spotted what connected Spur, Urge, and Goad. That Egg from earlier is not to be eaten, but to form a common phrase with the word “on”. Yellow category complete.

Looking again at Fish and Mozzarella made me consider whether food sticks could be a theme, but deciding that banana or dairy sticks don’t exist in any sane society, I told myself to go figure. And I did exactly that, linking the word go not only to Figure but also Bananas, Fish, and Steady for the tricky purple category.

With Fish re-allocated elsewhere, it was time to return to my grocery store theme, this time placing Snack alongside Dairy, Frozen, and Produce to finally get the right combination.

That left Mozzarella, Orange, Jawbreaker, and Meatball. We are of course listing spherical foods, to complete today’s game with only one incorrect effort. I think it’s only fair I reward myself with a well-earned snack!

Yesterday’s Connections answers

Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Connections answers for game #246, which had a difficulty rating of 4.1 out of 5, according to the Connections Companion.

With Nemo among yesterday’s Connections answers, I must have had Disney on the brain as I immediately connected Monkey, Parrot, Genie, and Candles, thinking of talking animals and objects from Disney films. It was an incorrect answer, but I wasn’t too deterred as I was only one away.

Figuring that I may have to hone in on one Disney classic in particular, I subbed out Candles (sorry Beauty and the Beast) in favor of Princess (Aladdin, come on down) and duly completed the Blue category.

• 🟨 Bad things for a video call to do: Drop, Echo, Freeze, Lag
• 🟩 Costumes with striped shirts: Mime, Prisoner, Referee, Sailor
• 🟦 Seen in “Aladdin”: Genie, Monkey, Parrot, Princess
• 🟪 Movies minus numbers: Apollo, Candles, Fantastic, Samurai

Coming hot on the heels of Super Bowl 58 in Las Vegas last night, my first thought when it came to the word Referee was the snazzy black and white striped shirts they’re famous for wearing. It proved to be a touchdown of a thought, as I soon located Mime, Prisoner, and Sailor to complete the stripy set.

Given how many Zoom and Teams calls I’m engaged on every week, I was a little amazed it took me so long to spot this third theme, though a delay in finding it seemed apt in the end: Drop, Echo, Freeze, and Lag are all unwelcome aspects of a video call, today’s yellow category.

That left Apollo, Candles, Fantastic, and Samurai, with the latter two (Fantastic Four and Seventh Samurai) sparking the connection in my brain, adding to Apollo 13 and 16 Candles: movies minus their numbers. And that’s a wrap!