The Tool Desk
Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →These are the hints and answers for NYT Connections game #850, published for Wednesday, October 8, 2025—not October 8, 2026. Try the four clues below before opening the spoiler section for the categories and words.
Hints for Connections #850
Connections asks you to sort 16 words into four groups of four. The color order is generally yellow, green, blue, then purple, from easiest to hardest, but it is only a guide: overlapping meanings and red herrings can make a tempting group incorrect.
- Yellow: The pinnacle of quality.
- Green: Types without the roll.
- Blue: What you would brush on a wall.
- Purple: Words united by a thing we sleep on.
Answers for Connections #850
Reveal the four categories and answers
| Color | Category | Words |
|---|---|---|
| Yellow | Finest | BEST, CREAM, ELITE, SELECT |
| Green | Rock music subgenres | ALTERNATIVE, ARENA, CLASSIC, GARAGE |
| Blue | Paint finishes | EGGSHELL, GLOSS, MATTE, PEARL |
| Purple | Kinds of beds | FLOWER, NAIL, OYSTER, RIVER |
Why the groupings can be tricky
Several words invite more than one association. CREAM and OYSTER, for example, can suggest paint shades, but neither belongs to the paint-finish group here. The blue set is about finishes: EGGSHELL, GLOSS, MATTE, and PEARL. CREAM instead fits with BEST, ELITE, and SELECT as words associated with the finest.
CLASSIC may also look like a quality descriptor, but in this puzzle it joins ALTERNATIVE, ARENA, and GARAGE as a rock music subgenre. The purple connection is less direct: FLOWER, NAIL, OYSTER, and RIVER each precede “bed” to form a kind of bed.
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Playing the daily puzzle and finding older games
TechRadar and Forbes described the daily puzzle as playable on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile. Forbes reported in October 2025 that access to the archive of past puzzles required an NYT Games or All Access subscription. Those access details were reported in 2025 and may have changed since then.
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