Today's NYT 'Connections' Hints And Answers For Saturday, June 21

In case you missed it, I wrote a “scribble” the other day about a new Sesame Street-style show for adults that’s focused on mental health. It’s funny, cute, insightful and a little dirty. I hope you check out my short(ish) write up.

Hey there, Connectors! Welcome to the weekend!

Back in 2014, a writer at Wired detailed what happened when they spent two whole days hitting the like button on every single thing they saw on Facebook. Nothing good, as it turned out!

I don’t really visit Facebook much anymore, other than to check on notifications and messages and maybe look at the first few posts in the feed. But ever since that original experiment, I’ve wondered what it might be like to do the same thing but with the laughing reaction.

I feel like things could get very messy, very quickly for anyone who was totally committed to doing this. AI slop? Hahaha. A friend got fired? Hilarious. A news story about something terrible that’s going on in the world right now? I’m sorry, that’s just too funny.

I imagine this would be a speedrun of how to lose friends and alienate people. Still, there’s an idea for a piece of 21st-century performance art waiting for anyone brave enough to go for it. That might be quite amusing.

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, June 21 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...

• BRANDY

• MALT

• FIRM

• BUTTER

• STOUT

• CIDER

• PORT

• HOUSE

• LUXE

• OUTFIT

• THICK

• SAUCE

• SQUAT

• GERM

• CONCERN

• SOLID

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

• 🟨 Yellow group — well-built, as in a person

• 🟩 Green group — none of your business (or maybe it is)

• 🟦 Blue group — like the thing you're looking at right now or an object that's on your wrist, perhaps?

• 🟪 Purple group — like hung and mold

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 — STOUT

• 🟩 Green group — HOUSE

• 🟦 Blue group — CIDER

• 🟪 Purple group — MALT

What Are Today’s Connections Groups?

Need some extra help?

Today’s Connections groups are...

• 🟨 Yellow group — stocky

• 🟩 Green group — company

• 🟦 Blue group — apple products

• 🟪 Purple group — starts of European countries

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 — stocky (SOLID, SQUAT, STOUT, THICK)

• 🟩 Green group — company (CONCERN, FIRM, HOUSE, OUTFIT)

• 🟦 Blue group — apple products (BRANDY, BUTTER, CIDER, SAUCE)

• 🟪 Purple group — starts of European countries (GERM, LUXE, MALT, PORT)

Fun game today. So many boozy words. Even HOUSE is one of them, as you can have a house wine.

FIRM and SOLID paired nicely with STOUT to give me an entry into my first group. Or so I thought. I tried whose with THICK and then SQUAT (one away from a group each time) before realizing that FIRM would pair with HOUSE and OUTFIT. That was two lives quickly down the drain. Uh oh.

At least it didn't take me long to figure out that CONCERN was the missing word for the greens. That let me move onto the last two groups.

The alcohols felt like a red herring, but I had to try it. Not even one away from a group. Oh dear, no lives remaining. But at least I had the information that two of those were blues and two were purples.

I can't lie, I had my head in my hands here for a while. My 115-win streak was on the line. I had to pay closer attention to the four non-alcoholic words for clues. I hit shuffle a couple of times. Eventually, BUTTER and SAUCE landed next to each other.

I had it! Applesauce and butter sauce! CIDER and BRANDY also involve apples! I immediately felt like I had to be a real jerk with the hint because I couldn't resist! I am sorry!

GERM and LUXE then clicked in my head and I deduced the purple connection. These words refer to GERMany, LUXEmbourg, MALTa and PORTugal. (My hint referred to Hungary and Moldova.)

Tough one today, but that's the way I like it. Still, I think I might need a glass of one of the things that were included on the board (it’s Saturday, so why not?). In any case, that's win 116 on the trot. Here's my grid:

🟩🟨🟨🟨 
🟩🟨🟨🟨 
🟨🟨🟨🟨 
🟩🟩🟩🟩 
🟦🟪🟦🟪 
🟦🟦🟦🟦 
🟪🟪🟪🟪

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. A slightly different recommendation today. If you’re interested in technology and the internet and how bad actors are abusing them, I highly recommend checking out 404 Media.

This independent publication, founded by a quartet of former Vice journalists, are breaking important stories about government surveillance, AI slop, privacy, cybercrime, consumer rights and other critical issues pretty much every day. 404 is an essential read for me. They’re doing vital work and we cite their reporting regularly at Engadget.

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

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