NYT Connections Hints & Answers — October 30, 2025 (Puzzle #872)

Should you be aiming for a flawless run on NYT Connections, the puzzle of today (#872) will give you a combination of easy wins and one that is of lateral category trickier and that will really test your pattern-spotting skills. A brief primer on the game's mechanics, hints for October 30 in order from easiest to hardest, the complete solution, and some quick tips to confidently finish the wall are provided below.

What is NYT Connections?

Connections presents 16 words in a 4×4 grid. Your job: sort those words into four thematic groups of four. Categories are color-coded by difficulty — yellow (easiest), green, blue, and purple (hardest). You get only four mistakes before the puzzle ends, so strategy and restraint matter.

Today’s Categories & Hints (Oct 30)

Hints are listed in the same difficulty order the game uses:

Yellow (easiest) — Love nicknames

Green — Fiction genres

Blue — Collective nouns for birds

Purple (hardest) — First names that are U.S. cities (hint: think of surnames belonging to well-known people whose first names match major U.S. cities)

If you want only nudges: for the purple group, read the candidate words aloud as surnames and ask whether you can imagine a famous person whose first name is also the name of a U.S. city.

Answers — Puzzle #872 (October 30, 2025)

For solvers who prefer the straight solution, here are the four groups:

Yellow — TERMS OF ENDEARMENT: ANGEL, LOVE, PUMPKIN, SUGAR

Green — FICTION GENRES: FANTASY, HORROR, MYSTERY, ROMANCE

Blue — COLLECTIVE NOUNS FOR BIRDS: CHARM, GAGGLE, MURDER, PARLIAMENT

Purple — PEOPLE WHOSE FIRST NAMES ARE U.S. CITIES (lateral link): BLOOM, BUTLER, GUTHRIE, LEVY

Note: the purple set depends on recognizing these as surnames of notable people whose first names are also U.S. city names — a lateral connection that tends to stump solvers.

Difficulty Rating & Quick Tips

On a 1–5 scale (1 = easiest), today’s puzzle scores about 2/5. The challenge is less obscure vocabulary and more spotting the right theme types quickly.

Start with yellow. Terms of endearment and simple lexical groups are usually the low-hanging fruit.

Use process of elimination. Once you’ve locked two or three words in a category, the remaining choices become easier.

Think collective nouns for blue. Classic flock names — murder (crows), gaggle (geese), parliament (owls), charm (finches/other birds) — are frequent Connections answers.

For purple, go lateral. Say the candidate words out loud as surnames and ask whether you can pair them with a first name that’s also a U.S. city.

How to Play Smarter

You only get four errors in Connections, so each guess counts. Confirm at least two or three words you’re sure about in a group before submitting it. The shuffle button can also help by breaking visual anchors that trick your eye on the original grid layout.

FAQ

Where can I play NYT Connections?

Connections is available for free on The New York Times Games page and via the NYT Games app on mobile and desktop.

How are categories ordered by difficulty?

The game orders categories from easiest (yellow) to hardest (purple) — designers place the most obvious links in yellow and reserve more abstract or lateral links for purple.