Connections is one of the most popular word association games in the New York Times’ repertoire of puzzles. Like Wordle, there’s a new puzzle to play every day, but unlike Wordle, Connections is all about connecting an existing set of words through common themes, rather than guessing an individual word yourself.

Of course, this may vary from player to player, but we’d say that Connections is much more of a brain teaser than Wordle, so the need for clues and hints will come in handy, especially if you’re running out of guesses. Below is everything you need to know about puzzle #981 on February 16.

How difficult is today’s Connections? Plus, hints for each group

Like always, there are four groups (or categories) that you need to sort the grid of sixteen words into. It can sometimes be difficult to know where to start with Connections, so to start you off, we can give you a few hints and starter words for each group, along with the four different categories in the #981 puzzle. NYT rates today’s puzzle as a 3 out of 5 for difficulty.

Group name clues

• 🟨 Hilarious jokes that are hard to contain
• 🟩 All these words sound the same
• 🟦 Chicken noises
• 🟪 How the body may react under stress

One word from each group

• 🟨 HOOT
• 🟩 DO
• 🟦 BUCK
• 🟪 FAWN

Today’s Connections answers (February 16, puzzle #981)

If you’ve run through all the clues for different groups but are still stumped and cannot complete the entire puzzle, the full results are below. As always, there are four groups with four words in each group.

• 🟨 Knee slapper: HOOT, LAUGH, RIOT, SCREAM
• 🟩 Homophones: DO, DOE, DOH, DOUGH
• 🟦 Sounds a chicken makes: BUCK, CACKLE, CLUCK, SQUAWK
• 🟪 Stress responses: FAWN, FIGHT, FLIGHT, FREEZE

Does Connections get harder every day?

No, difficulty doesn’t inherently scale each day, but some Connections will be harder than others – or be particularly hard if you’re missing a frame of reference or lack knowledge in a certain topic. If one or more of the groups is all about linking together, for example, names of baseball players, or a topic you’re not knowledgeable about, then you can quickly struggle with where to start. The different colors represent difficulty between groups, starting with yellow (the easiest), up to purple (the most difficult).

We’d say that the game progressively gets easier as you complete a category or two, since you’re thinning out the words and can remove any potentially incorrect links (many words in the puzzle may seem to belong to a common theme, but end up acting as red herrings). You can only make four mistakes before it’s game over, so if you’re on your last guess, it may be worth consulting our hints and clues before you commit to an answer.

About the Author

Jack Goodall

At PC Guide, Jack is mostly responsible for reporting on hardware deals. He also specializes in monitors, TVs, and headsets and can be found putting his findings together in a review or best-of guide.