Spoiler warning: The NYT Connections answers for Friday, January 2, 2026 (game #936) are WRITE, SHTICK, BENCHMARK, and VEGETABLES MINUS STARTING LETTER. The 16 words are HIVE, ROUTINE, RECORD, NUMBER, LOG, STANDARD, BIT, JOT, QUASH, BAR, NOTE, EEK, METRIC, GAG, ALE, and EXAMPLE.
Connections #936 answers for January 2
| Category | Words | Connection |
|---|---|---|
| WRITE | JOT, LOG, NOTE, RECORD | Ways to write down or document something. |
| SHTICK | BIT, GAG, NUMBER, ROUTINE | Terms for a comic routine or signature act. |
| BENCHMARK | BAR, EXAMPLE, METRIC, STANDARD | A comparison level, reference point, or target. |
| VEGETABLES MINUS STARTING LETTER | ALE, EEK, HIVE, QUASH | Each becomes a vegetable name when its first letter is restored. |
These groupings are also reported by TechRadar, WordHint, and Parade.
Hints for Connections #936
Yellow: an act of writing
Think of what you might do with a pen or pencil. “Get me a pen” points toward this group.
Green: a performer’s signature routine
Look for words associated with a comic’s recurring joke, act, or performance.
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Blue: a comparison level
Consider words meaning a reference point, measuring stick, or level to meet.
Purple: food words with something removed
The final group consists of familiar garden produce after its first letter has been deleted.
How the purple wordplay works
Restore one initial letter to each purple answer: ALE becomes KALE, EEK becomes LEEK, HIVE becomes CHIVE, and QUASH becomes SQUASH. The resulting words are vegetables, while the displayed entries are their first-letter-deleted forms.
A reliable way to solve this board
- Start with the clearest literal set. JOT, LOG, NOTE, and RECORD all describe writing or documenting, making WRITE the safest first submission.
- Remove those four and reassess. With the writing terms gone, identify the performance vocabulary for SHTICK.
- Test the comparison meanings. BAR, EXAMPLE, METRIC, and STANDARD can each serve as a benchmark, but check that no remaining word fits better elsewhere.
- Inspect the leftovers for altered words. When four unusual entries remain, try adding or removing a letter and look for a shared category; that reveals the vegetable transformation.
- Use mistakes carefully. Connections has four groups of four and allows up to four incorrect guesses. Its difficulty colors run from yellow (easiest) through green and blue to purple (hardest), so leaving the wordplay set until last is usually safest.
What made #936 tricky
Several entries can look broadly related: RECORD might be a performance, NUMBER can mean a measurement, and EXAMPLE can be a model or benchmark. The puzzle relies on choosing the narrowest shared meaning for each quartet, then recognizing that the purple set is not made of vegetables as shown—it is made from vegetable names with their opening letters removed.
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For January 2, 2026, Connections #936 sorts into WRITE, SHTICK, BENCHMARK, and VEGETABLES MINUS STARTING LETTER. The key breakthrough is restoring the first letters in ALE, EEK, HIVE, and QUASH to make KALE, LEEK, CHIVE, and SQUASH.
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