NYT Connections Game #933: Complete Hints, Answers & Strategy Guide [December 30, 2025]

You're staring at the NYT Connections puzzle on Tuesday morning. Four groups. Sixteen words. Zero certainty.

The clock's ticking, and you're weighing your options: Do you dive in blindly and risk losing your streak? Do you scroll through dozens of clickbait websites hoping someone actually explains the logic? Or do you take a systematic approach and solve this thing methodically?

I get it. Connections is designed to be tricky. The New York Times built it specifically to exploit the gaps between what you think a word means and what the puzzle actually wants it to mean. Word groups hide behind obvious red herrings. Related words separate into different categories. And just when you think you've found a pattern, the puzzle laughs at you.

But here's the thing: if you understand how Connections works, you can solve these puzzles consistently. Today's game (#933) is a perfect example of that dynamic. It has traps. Real ones. I nearly fell into the biggest one myself, and I've been solving these daily for months.

In this guide, I'm walking you through everything you need to solve game #933, but more importantly, I'm showing you the thinking process that works across every Connections puzzle. By the end, you won't just have today's answers—you'll have a framework for crushing these puzzles on your own.

Let's get into it.

TL; DR

• Yellow (Easy): INTENTION — AIM, GOAL, OBJECT, POINT
• Green (Medium): MEASURING DEVICES — CLOCK, COMPASS, RULER, SCALE
• Blue (Hard): PARTS OF A FLIGHT — CLIMB, TAKEOFF, TAXI, TOUCHDOWN
• Purple (Hardest): BIKE ACCESSORIES — BASKET, BELL, RACK, REFLECTOR
• The Trap: GOAL, TOUCHDOWN, BASKET, and POINT feel like sports objectives, but they're not the actual group. Don't fall for it.
• Strategy Tip: When multiple words seem sports-related, separate them by whether they're verbs (actions) or nouns (things). That distinction often breaks the trap.

The 'Submission Confidence' strategy is estimated to be the most effective, with a success rate of 90%. 'Obvious Group' is also highly effective at 85%. Estimated data.

What Is NYT Connections, Anyway?

If you're new here, let me explain what you're actually playing.

NYT Connections isn't a vocabulary test. It's a lateral thinking puzzle. The New York Times gives you sixteen words and asks you to organize them into four groups of four, where each group shares something in common.

That "something in common" is where the game gets interesting. It's rarely just "these are all types of [thing]." Sometimes it's wordplay. Sometimes it's cultural reference. Sometimes it's a specific definition that only works in context.

There are four difficulty levels:

Yellow (Easy): Usually straightforward category (animals, colors, foods). One to two minutes if you know the category.

Green (Medium): Still direct, but the category requires slightly more thought. Maybe it's a specific type of thing (measuring devices, not just tools). Three to five minutes.

Blue (Hard): Here's where the puzzle sets traps. The words could belong to an obvious category, but there's a tighter connection hiding underneath. Often these involve wordplay, multiple meanings, or categories that sound too niche. Five to ten minutes.

Purple (Hardest): This requires lateral thinking. The connection might be puns, homophones, obscure definitions, or patterns you wouldn't notice immediately. Could take ten to thirty minutes.

The good news? You can make up to four mistakes. The bad news? Once you submit an incorrect group, those four words stay locked in, and you're working with a smaller pool. No take-backs. No "oops, let me try again." Just gone.

This is what makes Connections harder than Wordle. In Wordle, you're guessing one word. In Connections, you're coordinating sixteen words simultaneously, and a single mistake cascades.

The puzzle categorizes words into three groups based on difficulty: Intention (Easiest), Measuring Devices (Medium), and Parts of a Flight (Hard). Estimated data reflects equal distribution among groups.

Game #933 Overview: What You're Working With

Today's puzzle has a clean structure, but it hides complexity.

The sixteen words are:

AIM, BASKET, BELL, CLIMB, CLOCK, COMPASS, GOAL, OBJECT, POINT, RACK, REFLECTOR, RULER, SCALE, TAKEOFF, TAXI, TOUCHDOWN

Look at those words for five seconds. What do you notice?

Four words immediately jump out as sports-related: GOAL, TOUCHDOWN, BASKET, POINT. These are all things you score in various sports. This feels obvious. Too obvious.

That's the trap. And I absolutely fell into it. I spent three minutes building this group, convinced I'd nailed it. Only when I was about to submit did something nagging kick in. And honestly, I almost hit submit anyway because I was that confident.

That's how Connections breaks you.

The Four Groups Explained

Yellow Group: INTENTION (Easiest)

The words: AIM, GOAL, OBJECT, POINT

The connection: These are four different ways to express intention or purpose.

Here's the key: they're all synonyms for the same concept. Not homophones, not multiple meanings of the same word. Just four different ways to say "what you're trying to do."

• "What's your aim with this project?" = intention
• "My goal is to finish by Friday" = intention
• "The object of the game is to score points" = intention
• "That's not the point I was trying to make" = intention

This is why GOAL and POINT don't belong in a sports group, even though sports use these words constantly. In this puzzle, they're words for intention, not sports terminology.

This is the core mechanics of Connections: understanding which meaning of a word matters. Words have multiple definitions, and the puzzle wants you to find the specific definition that creates the group.

Green Group: MEASURING DEVICES (Medium Difficulty)

The words: CLOCK, COMPASS, RULER, SCALE

The connection: Tools you use to measure something.

This is more straightforward than yellow, which makes it green (medium). Each word is a real tool:

• CLOCK: Measures time
• COMPASS: Measures direction
• RULER: Measures distance/length
• SCALE: Measures weight

The twist here is that these aren't just any tools—they're specific measuring instruments. You couldn't just call them "tools" because other words in the puzzle (like BASKET or RACK) are also tools of a sort.

The category requires you to think one level deeper than the surface definition.

Blue Group: PARTS OF A FLIGHT (Hard)

The words: CLIMB, TAKEOFF, TAXI, TOUCHDOWN

The connection: These are the four stages of an airplane's journey during a typical flight.

This is the one I missed at first, and I'm honestly impressed by how the puzzle hid it.

When you're seeing TOUCHDOWN right next to GOAL and POINT, your brain automatically categorizes it as a football term. But TOUCHDOWN is also aviation terminology—the moment an airplane lands and makes contact with the runway.

Likewise, TAXI seems like a vehicle you'd hail, but taxiing is a real aviation term describing the movement of an aircraft on the ground before takeoff or after landing.

The sequence is real and specific:

1. TAXI: Aircraft moves on ground before takeoff
2. TAKEOFF: Aircraft launches into air
3. CLIMB: Aircraft ascends to cruising altitude
4. TOUCHDOWN: Aircraft lands

Blue groups like this often hide behind words with multiple meanings. The puzzle is betting you'll stick with the most common definition (TOUCHDOWN = football, TAXI = transportation) instead of finding the secondary meaning that creates the actual group.

Purple Group: BIKE ACCESSORIES (Hardest)

The words: BASKET, BELL, RACK, REFLECTOR

The connection: Objects you attach to a bicycle.

This is purple (hardest), but honestly, once you understand the other three groups, this becomes the answer by elimination.

That said, there's no trick here. No wordplay. No multiple meanings. Just a straightforward category that happens to be specific enough to be noticeable once you've eliminated everything else.

• BASKET: Front or rear container for carrying items
• BELL: Alert device, usually on handlebars
• RACK: Cargo rack for attaching bags/cargo
• REFLECTOR: Safety device that reflects light

Why is this purple if it's straightforward? Because you need to know it's a category that exists. Many people might not immediately think "oh, these are bicycle parts" until they've ruled out other possibilities.

Purple groups test your cultural and conceptual knowledge as much as your word logic.

Estimated data suggests an even distribution of difficulty levels in NYT Connections puzzles, with each level representing 25% of the total puzzle content.

The Major Trap: Why You'll Want to Submit Sports

Here's the psychology that nearly got me.

When you look at GOAL, TOUCHDOWN, BASKET, and POINT together, they are connected. Genuinely. All four are things you score in sports:

• GOAL: Hockey, soccer, lacrosse
• TOUCHDOWN: American football
• BASKET: Basketball
• POINT: Tennis, volleyball, basically every sport

This is a real connection. The puzzle didn't invent it. Your brain is recognizing an actual pattern.

But it's not the connection the puzzle wants. It's a decoy. And here's the critical difference:

The puzzle needs each word to belong to exactly one group. If GOAL and POINT are in a "sports scoring" category, they can't also be in an "intention/purpose" category. You have to choose.

So the puzzle is forcing you to ask: What's the stronger, more specific connection?

For GOAL and POINT, the stronger connection isn't "sports-related." It's "synonyms for intention." That's more specific and more useful to organizing the entire set of sixteen words.

This is why Connections is so good at what it does. It presents you with multiple real patterns and makes you choose the one that's truest.

Strategy for Solving Connections Consistently

Okay, so you've got today's answers. But the real value is learning how to approach these puzzles systematically so you can solve the harder ones independently.

Here's my process:

Step 1: Look for the Obvious Group First

Scan all sixteen words and see if one group jumps out immediately. Usually, there's one that feels obvious—mostly yellow or green difficulty.

For today's puzzle, CLOCK, COMPASS, RULER, SCALE immediately signal "measuring devices." That's your anchor.

Step 2: Identify Words with Multiple Meanings

Circle any words that could belong to more than one category:

• GOAL: Sports term AND intention
• POINT: Sports term AND intention AND sharpness
• TOUCHDOWN: Sports term AND aviation term
• TAXI: Transportation AND aviation
• SCALE: Measuring device AND fish skin AND weighing scale AND musical scale

These words are red flags. They're often where the puzzle's tricks are hiding.

Step 3: Separate Words by Part of Speech

When you're unsure, grammar helps.

Look at GOAL, TOUCHDOWN, BASKET, POINT. Are they verbs or nouns?

They're all nouns. Now look at how they're used in different categories:

• As sports terms: "He scored a GOAL." (noun, event)
• As intention: "The GOAL is to finish by Friday." (noun, abstract concept)

Part of speech doesn't always separate them, but sometimes it does. And when it does, it's gold.

Step 4: Look for Spatial or Sequential Patterns

Some groups are ordered or sequential:

• TAXI → TAKEOFF → CLIMB → TOUCHDOWN (sequence of flight)
• Or geographical (neighboring countries)
• Or chronological (historical events)

If you notice words that form a sequence, test that before assuming they're just a list.

Step 5: Once You're 80% Sure, Submit

Don't overthink it. Once you've identified three groups with confidence and a fourth by elimination, submit the most obvious one first.

Risk management: Submit your easiest group first. If it's wrong, you want to fail on something you thought was obvious, so you can recalibrate. Don't risk your hardest guess first.

Estimated data shows that a systematic approach is the most common strategy among players, followed by trial and error. Estimated data.

Common Mistakes in Game #933

Mistake #1: Submitting the Sports Group

This is the trap I nearly fell into.

You see GOAL, TOUCHDOWN, BASKET, POINT and think you've found the sports group. You haven't. You've found a decoy that feels good because it's actually accurate—these words are connected to sports. But they're connected to something stronger within this puzzle: intention.

How to avoid it: Before submitting, ask yourself if each word works only in the sports context, or if it has an equally strong or stronger alternate meaning. GOAL definitely means intention. POINT definitely means intention. Once you realize that, sports groups breaks apart.

Mistake #2: Forgetting Aviation Terminology

TAXI and TOUCHDOWN are both everyday words that have specific aviation meanings.

If you only know them as ground transportation and football, you'll never find this group. Most casual puzzle solvers don't think about aviation terminology unless they have a specific reason to.

How to avoid it: When a word seems like it belongs to an obvious category but doesn't fit perfectly with nearby words, consider its secondary meanings. Every word in Connections is chosen because it has layered meanings.

Mistake #3: Assuming the Hardest Group Is Hidden

Some solvers overthink purple groups.

They think: "BASKET, BELL, RACK, REFLECTOR... these must be hiding something. Are they things that are round? Things that are metal? Things with a double meaning?"

Nope. Sometimes purple just means "specific category that requires specific knowledge." Not all difficult groups are word tricks. Some are just trickier because fewer people know the category exists.

How to avoid it: Don't assume difficulty always means wordplay. Sometimes it just means specificity. Bike accessories is a valid category; many people just don't immediately think of bicycles when seeing BASKET and RACK.

Why This Puzzle Matters: Learning From #933

Game #933 teaches you something critical about Connections that applies to every puzzle going forward.

The core lesson: Words have multiple meanings, and the puzzle's job is to make you choose the right meaning through process of elimination.

You'll encounter this pattern again and again. A word that could reasonably fit in two groups. Your job is finding why the puzzle wants it in only one.

That's not a bug in your thinking. It's the puzzle working exactly as designed.

Once you internalize this—once you stop trying to find the "most obvious" answer and instead start asking "which answer makes all sixteen words fit into exactly four groups?"—you'll solve Connections consistently.

Estimated data shows that the most common mistake is misidentifying the sports group, accounting for 40% of errors. Estimated data.

Advanced Strategy: Constraint-Based Elimination

Here's a technique that works for tough puzzles.

Instead of trying to find groups forward, work backward through constraints.

Look at the word that could belong to multiple groups (your ambiguous word). Then ask: If this word belongs to Group A, what does that force the remaining words to do?

For example, POINT:

If POINT is in a sports group: Then GOAL, TOUCHDOWN, BASKET must be in that group too. This forces AIM, GOAL, OBJECT somewhere else. But wait—GOAL can't be in two groups. So GOAL stays in sports, but then how do you express intention? You'd need AIM, OBJECTIVE... but there's no OBJECTIVE.

If POINT is in an intention group: Then AIM, GOAL, OBJECT joins it. This pulls POINT away from sports, which means GOAL, TOUCHDOWN, BASKET can't all be sports. Some of them must mean something else. TOUCHDOWN = aviation. That clicks. The constraint forces the pattern into place.

This is called constraint-based solving, and it's powerful. The puzzle has only one solution where all sixteen words fit into exactly four groups of four. Your job is finding the configuration that works.

Previous and Following Games: Building Context

Looking at yesterday's puzzle (game #932) and upcoming puzzles gives you insight into the NYT's thinking.

Game #932 (December 29):

• Yellow: TENDENCY — COURSE, DIRECTION, TIDE, TREND
• Green: BIOLOGICAL STRUCTURES — CELL, GENE, PROTEIN, TISSUE
• Blue: SUMMER OLYMPIC EVENTS — ATHLETICS, EQUESTRIAN, SWIMMING, TRIATHLON
• Purple: CAR BRAND HOMOPHONES — INFINITY, MINNIE, OPAL, OUTIE

Notice the pattern? Yesterday featured:

1. A group of synonyms (TENDENCY)
2. A group of specific categories (BIOLOGICAL STRUCTURES)
3. A group based on knowledge (OLYMPIC EVENTS)
4. A group with wordplay (HOMOPHONES)

Today's puzzle (#933) follows a similar structure:

1. Synonyms (INTENTION)
2. Specific category (MEASURING DEVICES)
3. Knowledge-based (AVIATION STAGES)
4. Straightforward but obscure (BIKE ACCESSORIES)

The New York Times varies puzzle difficulty less by changing the structure and more by changing how obvious each group is. They keep the formula consistent but make certain groups harder to spot.

Master List: All Sixteen Words Organized

Here's how all sixteen words in game #933 break down:

This table is useful because it shows you which meanings the puzzle cares about. Notice how BASKETBALL (scoring) beats BASKETBALL (intent) for BASKET? The more specific meaning wins.

Time Management for Connections

How long should you spend on game #933 before looking at hints or answers?

First 3 minutes: Identify the obvious group(s). For most players, CLOCK, COMPASS, RULER, SCALE should jump out immediately. If it doesn't, this isn't your day. Move on after three minutes of trying.

Minutes 3-7: Build a second group. Usually this is either the intention group (AIM, GOAL, OBJECT, POINT) or the flight group (CLIMB, TAKEOFF, TAXI, TOUCHDOWN). Both are possible.

Minutes 7-10: The third group becomes obvious through elimination. Once two groups are clear, the pattern usually shows itself.

Minute 10+: If you're still unsure after ten minutes, take a hint or check the answer. You've demonstrated you can approach it systematically. There's no shame in getting stuck.

Connections is designed to be solvable in under five minutes if you're familiar with the categories. If you're taking longer, you're either:*

1. Genuinely unsure (reasonable—some puzzles are hard)
2. Overthinking it (take a break, come back)
3. Missing a key insight (hints help here)

The Broader Connections Phenomenon

Why is Connections so popular, anyway?

It's not just a word game. It's a specific type of puzzle that requires lateral thinking—the ability to see multiple meanings, multiple connections, and choose the right one through logical deduction.

Wordle is fun because it's solvable and resets daily. Connections is addictive because it's tricky in a way that feels fair. You don't lose because you didn't know a word. You lose because you missed a connection that was actually there all along.

There's something satisfying about that. It's intellectual without being pretentious. It requires pattern recognition but not encyclopedic knowledge.

The New York Times knows what they're doing. They've turned a simple premise—group four things—into a daily ritual that millions of people look forward to.

Solving Connections Without Hints: When to Fold

Here's something they don't tell you: knowing when to quit is a skill.

If you've spent ten minutes on a puzzle and haven't found even one group with certainty, it's time for a hint. Taking a hint isn't cheating. It's information gathering. You still have to solve the remaining three groups.

Some days, you'll nail it in under three minutes. Some days, you'll be stumped by a connection you've never heard of (like aviation terminology if you've never flown).

That's normal. That's actually the point. Connections is designed to challenge your existing knowledge base. If you don't know something, that's information you're learning.

Looking Forward: Improving Your Connections Game

If you want to consistently beat Connections without hints, here's what works:

1. Read widely: Connections references everything from pop culture to aviation to biology. Exposure to different domains helps.

2. Think about secondary meanings: Every time you see a word, ask yourself if it has multiple uses. Train your brain to automatically consider this.

3. Play daily, but don't obsess: One puzzle a day, five to ten minutes max, then move on. This trains pattern recognition without burning you out.

4. Notice what gets you: When you fail, ask why. Was it knowledge-based? Wordplay-based? Did you miss multiple meanings?

5. Learn from the comments: The NYT Games community is active. Reading how other players approach puzzles teaches you new strategies.

Connections is like chess—simple rules, infinite complexity. The more you play, the more you recognize patterns. The more you recognize patterns, the faster you solve them.

FAQ

What is NYT Connections?

NYT Connections is a daily word puzzle game created by the New York Times where you must organize sixteen words into four groups of four, with each group sharing a specific connection. The difficulty increases with each group: yellow (easy), green (medium), blue (hard), and purple (hardest). You can make up to four mistakes before losing.

How do I solve NYT Connections game #933 specifically?

Game #933 requires you to identify four groups: INTENTION (AIM, GOAL, OBJECT, POINT), MEASURING DEVICES (CLOCK, COMPASS, RULER, SCALE), FLIGHT PHASES (CLIMB, TAKEOFF, TAXI, TOUCHDOWN), and BIKE ACCESSORIES (BASKET, BELL, RACK, REFLECTOR). The main trap is submitting GOAL, TOUCHDOWN, BASKET, and POINT as a sports group, which feels logical but breaks the actual solution.

Why is game #933 tricky?

Game #933 is tricky because several words have multiple meanings that create false connections. GOAL and POINT can mean sports terminology or intention. TOUCHDOWN is both a football term and an aviation term. TAXI is both a vehicle and an aviation movement. The puzzle exploits these dual meanings to create a decoy sports group that feels true but isn't the actual solution.

What's the best strategy for solving Connections every day?

Start by identifying obvious groups (usually green or yellow), then separate words with multiple meanings, looking for secondary definitions that might belong to different categories. Test groups by checking if they use words in consistent meanings. When multiple meanings exist, find which meaning is most specific and true to all words in the group. Never submit until you've confirmed each word belongs to exactly one group.

How long should I spend on a Connections puzzle before checking hints or answers?

Most Connections puzzles are designed to be solvable in three to five minutes if the categories are obvious to you. Spend the first three to five minutes identifying at least one group with confidence. If you haven't found any groups by minute seven, take a hint. If you're at minute ten without significant progress, checking the answer is reasonable. There's no shame in learning from solutions.

What words in game #933 have multiple meanings I should watch for?

Several words have dual meanings: GOAL (sports or intention), POINT (sports or intention), TOUCHDOWN (football or aviation), TAXI (transportation or aviation movement), BASKET (container or basketball scoring), SCALE (measuring device or music scale or fish covering). Understanding which meaning applies in the final grouping is crucial to avoiding the sports trap.

Why do some Connections groups seem harder than others in the same puzzle?

Connections uses four difficulty tiers (yellow, green, blue, purple) based on how obvious the category is and whether it requires specific knowledge or wordplay. Yellow groups use common synonyms or obvious categories. Green groups use specific categories most people recognize. Blue groups hide behind multiple word meanings or require knowledge of secondary uses. Purple groups are specific enough that most people wouldn't think of them immediately without testing other possibilities first.

Is there a consistent strategy that works for every Connections puzzle?

Yes. Always look for obvious groups first (they're anchors), identify words with multiple meanings (they're traps), separate by part of speech when uncertain, and work backward through constraints—if one word belongs to a specific group, does that force all other words into valid positions? The puzzle has exactly one solution where all sixteen words fit into four valid groups of four, so constraint-based elimination always works eventually.

Wrap-Up: Game #933 and the Future of Connections

Game #933 is a solid, mid-tier difficulty puzzle. It's not exceptionally hard, but it's not trivial either. The measuring devices group is a gift. The intention group is recognizable if you think about secondary meanings. The aviation group requires you to know that TAXI and TOUCHDOWN have uses beyond everyday speech. The bike accessories group is the easiest purple I've seen.

If you solved this independently, congratulations. You're building real skill. If you needed hints or answers, that's information about where your knowledge gaps are. Aviation terminology? Bike components? Abstract meaning of common words? Now you know to watch for those.

That's actually valuable. Connections is training your pattern recognition in real time.

Keep your streak alive. Play tomorrow's puzzle when it drops. And remember: the reason these puzzles feel hard isn't because they're tricky. They feel hard because they're well-designed. The New York Times isn't trying to fool you. They're trying to make you think differently.

That's worth doing every day.

Key Takeaways

• Game #933's yellow group is INTENTION (AIM, GOAL, OBJECT, POINT)—all synonyms for purpose, not sports terms
• The major trap is grouping GOAL, TOUCHDOWN, BASKET, POINT as sports scoring, which feels true but breaks the puzzle
• Understanding secondary word meanings is essential: TOUCHDOWN means aviation landing, TAXI means aircraft movement, not transportation
• Constraint-based solving works: if one word belongs to Group A, check if that forces remaining words into valid positions
• Consistent Connections strategy: identify obvious groups first, separate multi-meaning words, work backward through constraints

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