NYT Connections Hints and Answers for Dec. 17 (#920): Full Puzzle Breakdown

The New York Times’ popular word game Connections delivered a balanced but engaging challenge on Wednesday, December 17, with Puzzle No. 920 offering clever wordplay without overwhelming difficulty. While some groupings were intuitive, others required careful attention to wording and patterns.

For players who needed guidance—or confirmation—here’s a complete overview of today’s hints, group themes, and final answers.

What Is NYT Connections?

Connections is a daily word game from The New York Times that asks players to group 16 words into four sets of four, each connected by a shared theme. The groups are color-coded by difficulty:

• Yellow: Easiest

• Green: Moderate

• Blue: Challenging

• Purple: Most difficult

Players are allowed four mistakes before the game ends and the solutions are revealed.

How Today’s Puzzle Played Out

Puzzle #920 leaned more on categorization and vocabulary recognition than word tricks. Most solvers found success by identifying the clearer groupings early and avoiding misleading overlaps.

The yellow and green groups were especially approachable, while the purple group required lateral thinking and familiarity with naming patterns.

Today’s NYT Connections Hints

For players who attempted the puzzle without spoilers, these hints helped narrow down possibilities:

• Yellow group: Things used to stay above water

• Green group: A perfectly smooth or even surface

• Blue group: Well-known vehicles from a Japanese automaker

• Purple group: Familiar names with an extra starting letter

Example hint words included kayak, level, Odyssey, and fluke, offering subtle clues without giving away full solutions.

Official Group Names

For a clearer direction, the New York Times revealed the official group themes:

• Yellow: Human-powered watercraft

• Green: Flush

• Blue: Honda models

• Purple: Biblical figures plus starting letter

Once these categories became clear, the remaining word placements followed logically.

Today’s Connections Answers (Spoilers)

Here are the confirmed groupings for NYT Connections #920:

• Yellow – Human-powered watercraft: dugout, kayak, raft, shell

• Green – Flush: even, flat, level, plane

• Blue – Honda models: Accord, Civic, Odyssey, Pilot

• Purple – Biblical figures plus starting letter: fluke, label, madam, truth

The purple group proved the most challenging, as the words appear unrelated at first glance.

Strategy Tips for Future Puzzles

Experienced players recommend starting with the yellow group, which often contains clear synonyms or closely related objects. Shuffling the grid can also help reveal patterns that aren’t obvious at first.

If you see the message “One away” after a guess, it means just one word is misplaced—revisiting each choice carefully can save a valuable attempt.

Looking Ahead

Connections continues to grow in popularity thanks to its mix of logic, language, and daily routine. With only one puzzle available per day, many players treat it as a mental warm-up alongside Wordle and other NYT games.

Puzzle #920 struck a satisfying balance, offering a confidence boost for regular players while remaining accessible to newcomers.