NYT Connections hints and answers for Saturday, January 3

Hey there, Connectors! Welcome to the weekend!

As I noted the other day, I don’t really make New Year’s resolutions. The change of one year into the next is fairly arbitrary after all. However, the beginning of a year is a good opportunity to think about what’s ahead and to form some goals for the next 12 months.

I haven’t given myself too many goals for this year, other than to find time to write more for Pastimes and to do a bit of solo travel for the first time in my life. Actually, come to think of it, I do have one big goal: to get myself into much better shape. That’s a pretty important one. I really do need to do it.

I’m fortunate enough that I don’t have any significant health issues right now, but I’m well aware that I will in the coming years if I don’t shed quite a bit of weight. So that’s my primary goal for 2026. What’s yours?

Before we begin, we have a great little community on Discord, where we chat about NYT Connections, the rest of the NYT games and all kinds of other stuff. Everyone who has joined has been lovely. It’s a fun hangout spot, and you’re more than welcome to join us.

Discord is also the best way to give me any feedback about the column, especially on the rare (or not-so-rare) occasions that I mess something up. I don’t look at Twitter much.

Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Saturday, January 3 are coming right up.

What Are Today’s Connections Hints?

Scroll slowly! Just after the hints for each of today’s Connections groups, I’ll reveal what the groups are without immediately telling you which words go into them.

Today’s 16 words are...

• GENERAL

• BAR

• BLANKET

• SLACK

• OVERALL

• WORK

• UMBRELLA

• NURSE

• PRIVATE

• JEAN

• MAJOR

• DIAMONDS

• WILLY

• JOGGER

• SOS

• CAPTAIN

The level one hints for today’s Connections groups are:

• 🟨 Yellow group — stages of a leadership system

• 🟩 Green group — you might need two for these to be truly effective

• 🟦 Blue group — take a bow before you take a trip to disturbia, or you might encounter a rude boy even if you’re the only girl (in the world)

• 🟪 Purple group — clutch, lease and dock would all fit in here

One Word For Each Connections Group

Be warned: we’re really starting to get into spoiler territory.

Let’s take a look at one word for each group.

Today’s Connections word hints are…

• 🟨 Yellow group — PRIVATE

• 🟩 Green group — JOGGER

• 🟦 Blue group — SOS

• 🟪 Purple group — NURSE

What Are Today’s Connections Groups?

Need some extra help?

Today’s Connections groups are...

• 🟨 Yellow group — army ranks

• 🟩 Green group — leg wear in the singular

• 🟦 Blue group — Rihanna #1 hits

• 🟪 Purple group — wet ____

What Are Today’s Connections Answers?

Spoiler alert! Don’t scroll any further down the page until you’re ready to find out today’s Connections answers.

This is your final warning!

Today’s Connections answers are...

• 🟨 Yellow group — army ranks (CAPTAIN, GENERAL, MAJOR, PRIVATE)

• 🟩 Green group — leg wear in the singular (JEAN, JOGGER, OVERALL, SLACK)

• 🟦 Blue group — Rihanna #1 hits (DIAMONDS, SOS, UMBRELLA, WORK)

• 🟪 Purple group — wet ____ (BAR, BLANKET, NURSE, WILLY)

I thought the army ranks might be a red herring, but I went for it anyway and they turned out to be the yellows.

JEAN and JOGGER made the greens pretty clear and when the grid shrank to just eight words, the blues jumped out at me.

That left the purples. I was able to figure out the connection for those without much trouble to give me a regular rainbow.

A pretty straightforward one today, I felt. My streak is now up to 308 wins.

How did you get on today? Here’s my grid for this one:

🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟪🟪🟪🟪

That’s all there is to it for today’s Connections clues and answers. Be sure to subscribe to my newsletter for hints and the solution for Sunday’s game if you need them.

P.S. I like all four of those Rihanna songs. My favourite of those is probably “SOS,” so let’s go with that for today’s recommendation. As a secondary recommendation, let’s all cross our fingers in the hope that Rihanna will finally release new music this year:

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