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Spoiler warning: The complete answers to NYT Connections #909 are below. For Saturday, December 6, 2025, the four groups are NORM, MOLLIFY, members of titular groups in animated franchises, and words beginning with reptiles or amphibians.
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Today’s Connections board
Here are the 16 words in the December 6 puzzle:
MODERATE, MONITORSHIP, AVERAGE, CAR, NEWTON, INCREDIBLE, MEAN, TEMPER, STANDARD, TOADY, COOL, MINION, SETTLE, ADDERALL, MONSTER, PAR
Note: The board contains MODERATE, not a second instance of AVERAGE. That distinction matters when you are checking the complete word list.
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Connections asks you to divide 16 words into four groups of four. The groups are commonly presented in increasing difficulty, with yellow usually being the most accessible and purple the most deceptive. The official NYT Help Center explanation of Connections describes the game’s basic four-groups-of-four format.
Hints for Connections #909
Use these in order if you want help without immediately seeing every answer.
Yellow hint
Think of a usual, ordinary, or expected level. These words can describe something typical or representative.
One-word clue: NORM
Green hint
Think about cooling something down or reducing its intensity. The words may mean to calm, soothe, moderate, or make something less severe.
One-word clue: COOL
Blue hint
Think Pixar and other animated franchises. Each answer points toward a film or franchise whose title uses that word.
One-word clue: MINION
Purple hint
Look only at the beginning of each word. The first four to six letters form the name of an amphibian or reptile. This is a wordplay connection, not a connection between the meanings of the complete words.
One-word clue: MONITORSHIP
Today’s Connections answers
Yellow: NORM
- AVERAGE
- MEAN
- PAR
- STANDARD
All four can refer to an ordinary, typical, or expected level. Average and mean are especially close in the mathematical sense, while par can describe an expected standard and standard can mean a normal or accepted level.
Green: MOLLIFY
- COOL
- MODERATE
- SETTLE
- TEMPER
These words can all mean to calm, soothe, or reduce intensity. You can cool anger, moderate a response, settle a dispute, or temper something harsh. The category label, MOLLIFY, captures the shared idea of making something calmer or less severe.
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Blue: Members of titular groups in animated franchises
- CAR — Cars
- INCREDIBLE — The Incredibles
- MINION — Minions and Despicable Me
- MONSTER — Monsters, Inc. and Monsters University
This is the puzzle’s broad franchise-based group. The four words do not all belong to one series or follow exactly the same grammatical pattern. Instead, each points to a prominent animated franchise whose title uses the word: Cars, The Incredibles, Minions/Despicable Me, and Monsters, Inc./Monsters University.
Purple: Starting with herpetofauna
- ADDERALL — ADDER
- MONITORSHIP — MONITOR
- NEWTON — NEWT
- TOADY — TOAD
The trick is to ignore the full meanings of the words and read their openings. An adder is a snake, a monitor is a type of lizard, a newt is an amphibian, and a toad is an amphibian. The longer words are deliberately disguised containers for those animal names.
Why this puzzle can be difficult
The yellow group creates several tempting overlaps. MODERATE looks like it might fit with AVERAGE, MEAN, or STANDARD because all can describe something ordinary or middle-range. It belongs in the green group instead because its verb sense—reducing intensity—is the intended connection.
The purple group is even less literal. ADDERALL is likely to stand out as a medication-related word, while MONITORSHIP and NEWTON look like unrelated nouns or names. Their beginnings are what matter: ADDER, MONITOR, and NEWT. TOADY completes the set with TOAD.
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The blue category is broad enough to be a final obstacle. CAR, INCREDIBLE, MINION, and MONSTER do not share a normal dictionary definition. They become a group only when you recognize the animated titles associated with them.
Complete solution at a glance
| Color | Category | Words |
|---|---|---|
| Yellow | NORM | AVERAGE, MEAN, PAR, STANDARD |
| Green | MOLLIFY | COOL, MODERATE, SETTLE, TEMPER |
| Blue | Animated-franchise titular groups | CAR, INCREDIBLE, MINION, MONSTER |
| Purple | Starting with reptiles or amphibians | ADDERALL, MONITORSHIP, NEWTON, TOADY |
Play more Connections
If you have not solved the puzzle yet, use the hints above before submitting a guess. You can also play Connections through NYT Games and find the current game and other New York Times puzzles there.
For independent confirmation of the December 6 categories and answers, Forbes’ coverage of game #909, TechRadar’s answer guide, and Parade’s hints and answers report the same groupings.
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What are the NYT Connections answers for December 6, 2025?
The four groups are NORM; MOLLIFY; members of titular groups in animated franchises; and words beginning with reptiles or amphibians. The answers are AVERAGE, MEAN, PAR, STANDARD; COOL, MODERATE, SETTLE, TEMPER; CAR, INCREDIBLE, MINION, MONSTER; and ADDERALL, MONITORSHIP, NEWTON, TOADY.
What is the purple category in Connections #909?
The purple group is based on prefixes: ADDERALL begins with ADDER, MONITORSHIP begins with MONITOR, NEWTON begins with NEWT, and TOADY begins with TOAD.
Why are CAR, INCREDIBLE, MINION, and MONSTER grouped together?
The blue words point to animated franchises: CAR to Cars, INCREDIBLE to The Incredibles, MINION to Minions or Despicable Me, and MONSTER to Monsters, Inc. or Monsters University.
The Bottom Line
The December 6, 2025, Connections solution is NORM: AVERAGE, MEAN, PAR, STANDARD; MOLLIFY: COOL, MODERATE, SETTLE, TEMPER; animated-franchise titles: CAR, INCREDIBLE, MINION, MONSTER; and words beginning with reptiles or amphibians: ADDERALL, MONITORSHIP, NEWTON, TOADY.
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