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Here are the NYT Connections hints and answers for Thursday, October 30, 2025, puzzle #872. The year matters: October 30, 2026 falls on a Friday.
Spoiler warning: The 16 words appear first, followed by graduated hints and then the complete solution. Stop reading whenever you have enough help.
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Today’s Connections words
The 16 tiles in game #872 were:
- ANGEL
- BLOOM
- BUTLER
- CHARM
- FANTASY
- GAGGLE
- GUTHRIE
- HORROR
- LEVY
- LOVE
- MURDER
- MYSTERY
- PARLIAMENT
- PUMPKIN
- ROMANCE
- SUGAR
Need more help? The hints below are arranged from gentlest to most direct.
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Yellow
Gentle hint: Affectionate nicknames.
More direct hint: Words you might call someone you love.
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Green
Gentle hint: As seen in bookshops.
More direct hint: Kinds of novels or stories.
Blue
Gentle hint: Feathered friends.
More direct hint: Names for groups of birds.
Purple
Gentle hint: Celebrities who could be places.
More direct hint: Famous people whose first names are also U.S. cities.
What are today’s Connections categories?
The four categories in game #872 were:
- Terms of endearment
- Fiction genres
- Collective nouns for birds
- People whose first names are U.S. cities
Today’s Connections answers
Yellow — TERMS OF ENDEARMENT: ANGEL, LOVE, PUMPKIN, SUGAR
Green — FICTION GENRES: FANTASY, HORROR, MYSTERY, ROMANCE
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Blue — COLLECTIVE NOUNS FOR BIRDS: CHARM, GAGGLE, MURDER, PARLIAMENT
Purple — PEOPLE WHOSE FIRST NAMES ARE U.S. CITIES: BLOOM, BUTLER, GUTHRIE, LEVY
Why the trickiest answers work
“MURDER” is a group of birds
MURDER is the strongest piece of misdirection in the blue group. A murder is commonly used as a collective noun for crows. Alongside CHARM, GAGGLE, and PARLIAMENT, it belongs to the puzzle’s broader set of bird-group terms. GAGGLE may immediately suggest geese, while “murder” suggests crows, but the category is not limited to one bird species.
The purple group uses surnames
The purple tiles are not city names themselves. They are surnames of well-known people whose first names are U.S. cities:
- BLOOM — Orlando Bloom
- BUTLER — Austin Butler
- GUTHRIE — Savannah Guthrie
- LEVY — Eugene Levy
Orlando, Austin, Savannah, and Eugene are all U.S. city names. That two-step connection makes this category considerably less obvious than simply looking for names on the board.
Other likely traps
PUMPKIN can pull attention toward Halloween because the puzzle appeared immediately before October 31, but here it is a term of endearment. ROMANCE can describe an affectionate relationship as well as a fiction genre, while HORROR and MYSTERY may initially feel like general descriptions rather than book categories. BLOOM can suggest flowers, and BUTLER can suggest an occupation or a different kind of surname clue.
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How NYT Connections works
Connections presents 16 words that must be sorted into four groups of four. Each group shares a connection, but several tiles are designed to appear compatible with more than one category. You can submit groups as you solve them, with incorrect guesses consuming mistakes from your available total.
This answer set and its category explanations come from published secondary coverage by inkl and TechRadar. Daily puzzle pages can also appear to have different dates depending on publication timing and the player’s local time zone.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Was NYT Connections game #872 played on October 30, 2025?
Yes. The puzzle was game #872 for Thursday, October 30, 2025. Publication timestamps may show October 29 in some locations, and a player’s local midnight can affect which puzzle is labeled “today.”
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Why is MURDER in the bird category?
A murder is a collective noun commonly associated with crows. It joins CHARM, GAGGLE, and PARLIAMENT as names for groups of birds.
Who are the people in the purple category?
They are Orlando Bloom, Austin Butler, Savannah Guthrie, and Eugene Levy. Their surnames are the tiles, while their first names are also U.S. city names.
The Bottom Line
The solution to NYT Connections #872 is: ANGEL, LOVE, PUMPKIN, SUGAR for terms of endearment; FANTASY, HORROR, MYSTERY, ROMANCE for fiction genres; CHARM, GAGGLE, MURDER, PARLIAMENT for collective nouns for birds; and BLOOM, BUTLER, GUTHRIE, LEVY for people whose first names are U.S. cities.
Quick Recap
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