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Today’s Connections grid
The standard Connections puzzle has 16 entries that must be split into four groups of four. You can submit three incorrect guesses; a fourth mistake ends the game.
| Grid words | Grid words | Grid words | Grid words |
|---|---|---|---|
| SILVER | MINT | STUDY | TIME |
| FIX | BUDDING | MASS | BUNDLE |
| FRESH | CURRENT | WAD | SAND |
| NAIVE | FORTUNE | LENGTH | NEW |
Progressive hints
Use these clues in order if you want help without immediately seeing every answer.
| Color | Hint | What it points toward |
|---|---|---|
| Yellow | Hasn’t been around long | Words for someone or something new or inexperienced |
| Green | One might be loaded with any of these | Informal terms for money |
| Blue | Precisely tracked | Quantities represented by SI measurement units |
| Purple | Bread, change and fire would fit in here | Words that follow “quick” |
Connections answers for January 19, 2026
Yellow: INEXPERIENCED
BUDDING, FRESH, NAIVE, NEW
Each word can describe a person or thing that is newly developing, unfamiliar or lacking experience. “Budding” suggests an emerging talent, while “fresh,” “naive” and “new” provide the other shades of the same idea.
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Green: MONEY TERMS
BUNDLE, FORTUNE, MINT, WAD
These are informal ways to refer to a substantial amount of money. “A mint” means a great deal of money in this context; it is not referring to the flavor or plant.
Blue: MEASURED BY SI UNITS
CURRENT, LENGTH, MASS, TIME
Electric current, length, mass and time are physical quantities associated with the International System of Units. The category is about what is measured, rather than a shared everyday phrase.
Purple: WORDS AFTER “QUICK”
FIX, SAND, SILVER, STUDY
Adding “quick” creates four familiar compounds: quick fix, quicksand, quicksilver and quick study. This word-completion pattern is the puzzle’s most deceptive link because the four entries do not look related on their own.
Why the hardest links work
Spotting the purple compounds
“Quick” can precede all four purple answers, but the resulting phrases belong to different domains: a temporary solution, a type of sand, the element-associated word for mercury and a fast learner. Testing a short, common prefix against apparently unrelated words is useful when a category has no obvious shared subject.
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“Current” and “time” have many everyday uses, and “mass” can mean a religious service or a large amount. In this set they become clearer when paired with “length,” forming a list of measurable physical quantities rather than a semantic phrase.
Handling the green red herrings
“Mint” can look like it belongs with “fresh,” but its money meaning places it with “bundle,” “fortune” and “wad.” Checking each word’s less literal definition prevents the yellow and green groups from being mixed.
A practical solving route
- Scan for an exact phrase pattern. Try common modifiers such as “quick” with words that seem unrelated; that reveals FIX, SAND, SILVER and STUDY.
- Group clear measurement nouns. CURRENT, LENGTH, MASS and TIME form the SI-quantity set once “current” is read as electric current.
- Read money words by meaning, not appearance. BUNDLE, FORTUNE, MINT and WAD all work as informal money expressions.
- Use the remaining four. BUDDING, FRESH, NAIVE and NEW are the descriptions of inexperience or recent arrival.
How to play and where to find the puzzle
Connections is a free daily New York Times word game available on the NYT website and in the Games app. Select four words that share a category and submit them; the game indicates whether the set is correct and tracks your remaining error allowance. A New York Times All Access or Games subscription is required for the archive of previous puzzles, while the daily puzzle itself is playable through the normal game interface.
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