NYT Connections #475: September 28, 2024

If you're looking for the Connections answer for Saturday, September 28, 2024, read on—I'll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solutions to all four categories.

The New York Times Connections for Saturday, September 28, 2024, is puzzle #475. Here are the hints, tips, and solutions for today's game.

If you’re looking for the Connections answer for Saturday, September 28, 2024, read on—I’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solutions to all four categories. Along the way, I’ll explain the meanings of the trickier words and we’ll learn how everything fits together. Beware, there are spoilers below for September 28, NYT Connections #475!

Read on if you want some hints (and then the answer) to today’s Connections game.

If you want an easy way to come back to our Connections hints every day, bookmark this page. You can also find our past hints there as well, in case you want to know what you missed in a previous puzzle.

Below, I’ll give you some oblique hints at today’s Connections answers. And farther down the page, I’ll reveal the themes and the answers. Scroll slowly and take just the hints you need!

Hints for the themes in today’s Connections puzzle

Here are some spoiler-free hints for the groupings in today’s Connections:

Yellow category - Like a cockapoo or a puggle.

Green category - What you do with a door stopper.

Blue category - Components for a board game that has a reputation for running torturously long.

Purple category - A fill-in-the-blank, with a word referring to reining something in. (It’s also the name of a key on a QWERTY keyboard.)

BEWARE: Spoilers follow for today’s Connections puzzle!

We’re about to give away some of the answers. Scroll slowly if you don’t want the whole thing spoiled. (The full solution is a bit further down.)

A heads up about the tricky parts

CRUISE and HOTEL might make you think of vacation, but they don’t go together today.

PLANT is a verb.

What are the categories in today’s Connections?

Yellow: COMPOSITE

Green: EMBED

Blue: ITEMS IN A MONOPOLY BOX

Purple: ___ CONTROL

DOUBLE BEWARE: THE SOLUTION IS BELOW

Ready to learn the answers to today’s Connections puzzle? I give them all away below.

What are the yellow words in today’s Connections?

The yellow grouping is considered to be the most straightforward. The theme for today’s yellow group is COMPOSITE and the words are: BLEND, COMPOUND, CROSS, HYBRID.

What are the green words in today’s Connections?

The green grouping is supposed to be the second-easiest. The theme for today’s green category is EMBED and the words are: LODGE, PLANT, STICK, WEDGE.

What are the blue words in today’s Connections?

The blue grouping is the second-hardest. The theme for today’s blue category is ITEMS IN A MONOPOLY BOX and the words are: DEED, HOTEL, HOUSE, TOKEN.

What are the purple words in today’s Connections?

The purple grouping is considered to be the hardest. The theme for today’s purple category is ___ CONTROL and the words are: BIRTH, CRUISE, QUALITY, REMOTE.

How I solved today’s Connections

REMOTE and HYBRID make me think of working from home, but I think HYBRID actually fits better with COMPOUND, CROSS, and BLEND, because all four words refer to things that have mixes of multiple components. ?

I think LODGE, STICK, PLANT, and WEDGE might be a category of words describing the act of shoving something into a small space. ?

BIRTH and DEED make me think of types of certificates, but I’m not sure what would go with those just yet. Maybe TOKEN?

HOTEL, CRUISE, and HOUSE are different vacation lodging options, but I don’t see a fourth.

Oh wait, maybe there’s a category of words that go with “control.” BIRTH control, REMOTE control, QUALITY control, CRUISE control. ?

That leaves TOKEN, HOUSE, HOTEL, and DEED. I’m not sure what the connection is there. Something related to Monopoly maybe? ? Yes! ITEMS IN A MONOPOLY BOX.

How to play Connections

I have a full guide to playing Connections, but here’s a refresher on the rules:

First, find the Connections game either on the New York Times website or in their Games app (formerly the Crossword app). You’ll see a game board with 16 tiles, each with one word or phrase. Your job is to select a group of four tiles that have something in common. Often they are all the same type of thing (for example: