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NYT Connections game #842 was published on Tuesday, September 30, 2025. The 16-word board splits into four groups of four. Start with the spoiler-light clues below; the complete answers are clearly marked farther down.
Spoiler-light clues
These clues move from broad to specific without giving away every word:
- Yellow: Cumbersome or affected behavior.
- Green: Get your chops around a familiar piece of wordplay.
- Blue: Feathered cartoon characters.
- Purple: The ends sound like numerals when spoken.
One-word nudges
If you need a smaller push, one representative answer from each group is:
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- Yellow: STIFF
- Green: WOOD
- Blue: WOODY
- Purple: GUTHRIE
Category names
- Yellow: Unnatural, as mannerisms
- Green: Words in a famous tongue twister
- Blue: Cartoon birds
- Purple: Ending with number homophones
Answers for Connections #842
Spoilers begin here. The complete groups are:
| Group | Words | Why they fit |
|---|---|---|
| Unnatural, as mannerisms | AWKWARD, STIFF, STILTED, WOODEN | Each describes behavior or mannerisms that seem affected, rigid or unnatural. |
| Words in a famous tongue twister | CHUCK, COULD, WOOD, WOODCHUCK | They appear in “How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?” |
| Cartoon birds | FOGHORN, SCROOGE, WOODSTOCK, WOODY | These refer to Foghorn Leghorn, Scrooge McDuck, Woodstock from Peanuts and Woody Woodpecker. |
| Ending with number homophones | CLASSICS, CREATE, GUTHRIE, THEREFORE | The spoken endings match six, eight, three and four, respectively. |
How the trickiest groups work
The tongue-twister group
The green set is built from the well-known woodchuck line. “Wood” and “woodchuck” supply the central phrase, while “chuck” and “could” complete the repeated sound pattern. The words do not need to appear consecutively on the board; recognizing the sentence is the key.
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The cartoon-bird group
The blue answers are shortened character names rather than a single franchise: Foghorn Leghorn, Scrooge McDuck, Woodstock and Woody Woodpecker. Their different series make this a useful red-herring group until the character connection becomes clear.
The number-sound group
The purple category is phonetic, not literal. Say each word aloud and listen to its ending:
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- CLASSICS ends with the sound of “six.”
- CREATE ends with the sound of “eight.”
- GUTHRIE ends with the sound of “three.”
- THEREFORE ends with the sound of “four.”
These words do not contain the written numerals; the match comes from pronunciation.
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The complete September 30 word bank
For reference, the 16 entries were:
WOOD, THEREFORE, WOODY, GUTHRIE, WOODSTOCK, CLASSICS, CHUCK, STIFF, COULD, WOODEN, CREATE, FOGHORN, AWKWARD, WOODCHUCK, SCROOGE and STILTED.
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What Connections #842 was testing
- The yellow group depended on synonyms for rigid or affected conduct.
- The green group rewarded recognition of a repeated tongue-twister phrase.
- The blue group mixed characters from several cartoon universes.
- The purple group required hearing number homophones at word endings.
Connections presents 16 words or expressions and asks players to sort them into four groups of four. Overlapping meanings and cross-category words are intentional, so a plausible trio is not enough: every group must account for exactly four entries.
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