Looking for the NYT Connections answers for January 27, 2025? Connections #596 grouped the 16 words into small amounts of food, protective coverings, parts of “extra virgin olive oil,” and references to The Shining. Hints appear first, followed by the full answer key.
NYT Connections #596 was the puzzle for Monday, January 27, 2025. Its four groups were a small amount of food, protective coverings in nature, words in “extra virgin olive oil,” and things seen in The Shining.
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Spoiler warning: The hints below become progressively more revealing, and the complete groups and answers appear farther down the page.
Hints for Connections #596 on January 27, 2025
Yellow hint
Think of a small serving—or a little bit of food that you might try.
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Green hint
These are natural outer coverings or protective layers found on living things.
Blue hint
Four of the words appear in the name of a familiar cooking oil.
Purple hint
These objects and images are associated with Stanley Kubrick’s horror film The Shining.
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Connections #596 answers for January 27, 2025
| Color | Category | Words |
|---|---|---|
| Yellow | Small amount of food to try | BITE, MOUTHFUL, SAMPLE, TASTE |
| Green | Protective coverings in nature | BARK, SCALES, SHELL, SKIN |
| Blue | “Extra virgin olive oil” | EXTRA, OIL, OLIVE, VIRGIN |
| Purple | Seen in The Shining | AXE, HEDGE MAZE, TWINS, TYPEWRITER |
How to solve the four groups
Yellow: BITE, MOUTHFUL, SAMPLE, TASTE
These four words describe a small quantity of food or the act of trying one. A bite or mouthful is a small portion, while a sample or taste is a small amount taken to test the flavor.
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The wording is slightly flexible: “taste” can mean either the flavor itself or a small amount of food, and “sample” can be used as both a noun and a verb. That flexibility makes this group easier to recognize once the other tempting possibilities have been removed.
Green: BARK, SCALES, SHELL, SKIN
Bark, scales, shell, and skin are protective outer coverings in nature. Bark shields a tree, scales cover animals such as fish and reptiles, a shell protects animals such as turtles and mollusks, and skin forms the outer covering of living organisms.
Several of these words can be read in more than one way. “Shell” might suggest food, while “skin” can refer to the peel or outer layer of a fruit or vegetable. The intended connection is the broader idea of a natural protective covering.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsBlue: EXTRA, OIL, OLIVE, VIRGIN
The words combine to make the familiar phrase extra virgin olive oil. This is the most direct phrase-based group in the puzzle, but it can be easy to distrust because the four entries initially seem unrelated.
In Connections, a group can be built from words that appear together in a known phrase rather than from words with the same dictionary meaning. Once EXTRA, VIRGIN, OLIVE, and OIL are spotted as components of the product name, they form the blue group.
Purple: AXE, HEDGE MAZE, TWINS, TYPEWRITER
Axe, hedge maze, twins, and typewriter are all strongly associated with The Shining.
- The axe is one of the film’s most recognizable props.
- The hedge maze is a major setting and part of the story’s climax.
- The twin girls are among the film’s most iconic images.
- The typewriter is connected to Jack Torrance’s writing scenes.
This is the category most likely to be solved through recognition or elimination. If the film connection does not immediately come to mind, the remaining four words after the more concrete groups are identified point toward the answer.
The Tool Desk
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The puzzle creates multiple plausible paths, especially among the food-related words. BITE, MOUTHFUL, SAMPLE, and TASTE all belong together, but OLIVE and OIL can also suggest food. Likewise, SHELL and SKIN can describe the outside of food, even though they belong with BARK and SCALES as natural coverings.
The phrase EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL is an intentional-looking distraction: solvers may suspect that the four words are too obvious or that one of them belongs in a different category. Here, however, the apparent phrase is the correct blue connection.
The purple group is also less literal than the others. The answer is not “things found in a particular scene”; it is “things seen in” or associated with The Shining. That distinction matters because the axe, hedge maze, twins, and typewriter do not share an ordinary category outside the film reference.
What is NYT Connections?
Connections gives players a grid of 16 words and asks them to divide the words into four groups of four. Each group shares a connection, and every word must be used exactly once.
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Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →The groups are color-coded by difficulty:
- Yellow: generally the easiest connection.
- Green: usually more difficult than yellow.
- Blue: often based on wordplay, phrases, or specialized knowledge.
- Purple: generally the trickiest and most likely to rely on a narrow association.
There is one intended solution for each daily puzzle, but the words are deliberately chosen to appear capable of fitting more than one group. Players can submit a proposed group, and an incorrect guess counts against the puzzle’s limited mistake allowance. Connections is released daily at midnight in the player’s local timezone and can be played through supported NYT Games web and app platforms.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.More puzzles away from the daily grid
If you enjoy the format but want something away from a screen, the New York Times Games puzzle book, Puzzle Mania!: Wordle, Connections, Spelling Bee, Minis and More!, is a related collection of offline puzzles. It is an additional New York Times Games book—not a reproduction of the January 27, 2025 puzzle and not a book containing the exact #596 answer key.
Date clarification
This answer page is specifically for Connections #596 from January 27, 2025. January 27, 2026 was a different puzzle, numbered #961. If you are searching an archive by month and day alone, include the year and puzzle number to avoid mixing the two entries.
Frequently Asked Questions
What were the NYT Connections answers for January 27, 2025?
The answers were BITE, MOUTHFUL, SAMPLE, and TASTE; BARK, SCALES, SHELL, and SKIN; EXTRA, OIL, OLIVE, and VIRGIN; and AXE, HEDGE MAZE, TWINS, and TYPEWRITER.
What was the blue category in Connections #596?
The blue group was EXTRA, OIL, OLIVE, and VIRGIN, which combine to form “extra virgin olive oil.”
What was the purple category in Connections #596?
The purple group was AXE, HEDGE MAZE, TWINS, and TYPEWRITER, all associated with Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.
Is Connections #596 the January 27, 2026 puzzle?
No. January 27, 2025 was Connections #596, while January 27, 2026 was a different puzzle, #961.
The Bottom Line
Connections #596, January 27, 2025: Yellow—BITE, MOUTHFUL, SAMPLE, TASTE; Green—BARK, SCALES, SHELL, SKIN; Blue—EXTRA, OIL, OLIVE, VIRGIN; Purple—AXE, HEDGE MAZE, TWINS, TYPEWRITER.
Quick Recap
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