NYT Connections hints and answers for Sunday, January 4

Hey there, Connectors! I hope you’ve had a fantastic weekend so far.

I’ve written a bit about how New Year’s resolutions aren’t really for me, even though I’ve made a few promises to myself for this year. I am curious, though: have you made any New Year’s resolutions for 2026? Perhaps you want to learn a new skill or do something else to improve yourself.

Feel free to share your resolutions in the comments below or in the Pastimes channel on our Discord server. Perhaps we can help keep each other accountable throughout the year as we pursue our goals.

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 Sunday, January 4 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...

• GRUMP

• COPY

• BLOCK

• PRINT

• ISSUE

• SCAN

• CRANK

• SACK

• REEL

• ETAIL

• TACKLE

• WIND

• DREAR

• BLITZ

• COIL

• EDITION

And the level one hints for today’s Connections groups are:

• 🟨 Yellow group — newsstand purchase

• 🟩 Green group — they keep things going around and around

• 🟦 Blue group — gridiron actions

• 🟪 Purple group — extra junk in the trunk or a cake with a bit more filling

One Word For Each Connections Group

Need some extra help? 

Be warned: we’re 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 — ISSUE

• 🟩 Green group — CRANK

• 🟦 Blue group — SACK

• 🟪 Purple group — DREAR

What Are Today’s Connections Groups?

Today’s Connections groups are...

• 🟨 Yellow group — paper publication

• 🟩 Green group — spool

• 🟦 Blue group — things a defensive football player does

• 🟪 Purple group — synonyms for butt plus starting letter

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 — paper publication (COPY, EDITION, ISSUE, PRINT)

• 🟩 Green group — spool (COIL, CRANK, REEL, WIND)

• 🟦 Blue group — things a defensive football player does (BLITZ, BLOCK, SACK, TACKLE)

• 🟪 Purple group — synonyms for butt plus starting letter (DREAR, ETAIL, GRUMP, SCAN)

I got the greens first this time. CRANK and COIL paved the way for those. I probably should have had the yellows first since that’s related to my profession.

The American football words were up next. Thanks to BLITZ for helping me get that.

That left me with the purples. I did not get that connection but… hehehe. I figured ETAIL would link to “retail” and DREAR and GRUMP would refer to “dreary” and “grumpy.” Very happy to be wrong about that, because I am actually 11 years old at heart.

Although I got the purples by default, I’m happy to get a perfect game. My streak is now at 309 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. I’ll be back over at Forbes for the Monday-Friday editions for the column. And if you haven’t subscribed to Pastimes already, definitely do that! It would be super sweet of you.

P.S. This isn’t a laidback song per se, but it’s a fantastic classic pop tune that feels like a nice, easy listen for a Sunday. A bunch of artists have recorded versions of “Everlasting Love.” One of my favourites is this one by Carl Carlton, who passed away just a couple of weeks ago:

Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Be kind to yourself and each other! Call someone you love!

On weekdays, you can find this column over at Forbes. Please follow my blog there for more coverage of NYT Connections and other word games, and even some video game news, insights and analysis. It helps me out a lot!

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