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

A quick programming note: I won’t have Connections columns for you next weekend, October 24 and 25. As much as I love doing them, I’m taking a short break to free up a little time for myself.

I have a couple of other things in the works for Pastimes, one of which I should be publishing this week. Now I’ve said that, this is me committing to finishing it up and sending it into the world within the next few days.

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, October 18 are coming right up.

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...

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

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…

Today’s Connections groups are...

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...

I feel like that was one of the most obvious purple groups in a while? FOGERTY and VAPORETTO seemed very out of place and it didn't take long for me at all to see how they fit with each other. After discounting the -nut words (COCO, HAZEL, BUTTER, CHEST) as a red herring, I slid the purples through.

The yellows were fairly easy to spot too, I felt. I realized that COCO and OBSESSION were perfumes, but didn't know what went with them. As I considered the other six words, the green category became clear. That left the blues for win number 595 on the trot.

How did you get on this time? Here's my grid:

🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟦🟦🟦🟦

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. I absolutely love American Football’s cover of The Cure’s “Boys Don’t Cry.” The original is a classic, and the Midwest emo spin on it is just terrific. I adore that the band interpolated their own song (perhaps their best-known track) “Never Meant” here. It’s just too good:

(Boys absolutely do cry, by the way. That’s good and healthy!)

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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