NYT Connections puzzle #745, played on Wednesday, June 25, 2025, groups its 16 words into cheeses, beverage-counter items, woodworking tools and altered bird names. Use the spoiler-controlled hints first, then open the full answer table when you are ready.
Progressive hints for Connections #745
These clues move from the easiest color group to the most difficult. Stop before the next section if you want to keep solving.
Yellow hint
Think of familiar cheeses, including varieties commonly sold sliced or named for an animal or place.
Green hint
Think about the disposable or reusable items you might pick up at a coffee shop or drink station.
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Blue hint
Look for basic hand tools used to shape, smooth or cut wood.
Purple hint
Four entries become names of large birds when one final letter is added.
Connections #745 answers
| Color | Category | Words |
|---|---|---|
| Yellow | Kinds of cheeses | BLUE, GOAT, JACK, SWISS |
| Green | Beverage self-service items | CUP, LID, NAPKIN, STRAW |
| Blue | Woodworking hand tools | CHISEL, PLANE, RASP, SAW |
| Purple | Birds with their final letter removed | CRAN (crane), FLAMING (flamingo), HERO (heron), RAVE (raven) |
Why the grid is tricky
The berry-name trap
CRAN, STRAW, BLUE and RASP can look like shortened forms of berry names: cranberry, strawberry, blueberry and raspberry. That tempting set is a red herring. RASP is a woodworking tool, while CRAN belongs with the altered bird names; STRAW and BLUE fit the beverage and cheese groups respectively.
The purple wordplay
The last group is not made from ordinary bird names. Add one letter at the end of each entry to get crane, flamingo, heron and raven. Spotting that shared deletion is the key to the purple category.
How NYT Connections works
The game presents 16 words and asks you to sort them into four groups of four. Groups are shown by difficulty color: yellow is easiest, followed by green, blue and purple. You can make up to four mistakes before the puzzle ends, so test a proposed group against the remaining words rather than submitting the first plausible set. Connections is available to play through the NYT Games site.
Quick Recap
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A practical way to solve similar puzzles
- Scan for obvious pairs and triples. Note words that clearly share a meaning, but do not submit until a fourth member is confirmed.
- Check alternate meanings. A word such as BLUE or JACK can belong to more than one apparent theme, which is how decoy groups form.
- Reserve the strangest words. Unusual fragments such as CRAN and HERO may signal a spelling transformation rather than a literal category.
- Re-evaluate after every group. Once one set is removed, the remaining words often make the harder connection visible.
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