Today's puzzle should have been an email.
Find our guide to New York Times Connections answers and hints for September 21 below.
Spoilers lie ahead for Connections #1,198. Only read on if you want to know today's Connections answers.
Plus, we're including a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #1,197, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.
Alternatively, visit our how to play NYT Connections guide for tips on how to solve the puzzle without our help.
What is Connections
Solving Connections relies on identifying connecting categories among 16 words. Each category's difficulty level is represented by a color; yellow is the easiest grouping, and purple is the most challenging. Once you've made 4 mistakes in your guesses, the answers will be revealed, so hints can be helpful.
Every day, we update this article with Connections hints and tips to help you find all 4 of today's answers so you can keep your Connections streak going. And if the clues aren't enough, you'll find all four answers below, with the category titles and the correlating words.
Today's Connections answer — hints to help you solve it
Today's Connection Grid and Words
- Compose
- Check
- Fly
- Beet
- Brah
- Worm
- Spam
- Mate
- Castle
- Chum
- Viva
- Sent
- Chop
- Capture
- Drafts
- Spinner
We have the Connections categories below, but here's a hint without the actual titles. Try this out:
- 🟨 Yellow: You've got mail
- 🟩 Green: Get a bite
- 🟦 Blue: Make your move
- 🟪 Purple: Orchestra
Today's Connections Group Hints
If you need hints to solve the groupings, then here are the themes of each, based on the order of difficulty:
- 🟨 Yellow: Email buttons
- 🟩 Green: Ways to attract fish
- 🟦 Blue: Chess verbs
- 🟪 Purple: Starts of composers' names
These hints should get you at least some of the way towards finding today's Connections answers. If not, then you can read on for bigger clues; or, if you just want to know the answer, then scroll down further.
Today's Connections answers
The Connections answers on September 21 for puzzle #1,198 are a bit harder than yesterday's puzzle, with the Connections Companion rating this puzzle's difficulty at 2.2 out of 5.
- 🟨 Email buttons: Compose, drafts, sent, spam
- 🟩 Ways to attract fish: Chum, fly, spinner, worm
- 🟦 Chess verbs: Capture, castle, check, mate
- 🟪 Starts of composers' names: Beet, brah, chop, viva
I hopped around a bit today, starting off with a hallmark of family reunions: fishing. Chum, fly, spinner, and worm make up the green category.
Moving on, I spotted some all-too familiar buttons with compose, drafts, sent, and spam for yellow.
I only recently learned what it means to castle, so I was happy to get a chance to flex my new knowledge with the blue category today, which also included check, mate, and capture.
That left purple as today's rote fill with beet, brah, chop, and viva.
Yesterday's Connections answers
- 🟨 Round flat things: Blu-ray, coaster, sand dollar, tortilla
- 🟩 Associated with Kentucky: Bluegrass, bourbon, derby, fried chicken
- 🟦 Vampire movies: Blade, near dark, sinners, twilight
- 🟪 ___ boards you ride on: Hover, skate, snow, surf
Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Connections answers for game #1,197 which had a difficulty rating of 2 out of 5.
My in-laws are from Kentucky, so once I saw bourbon and derby, my mind went straight to one place: Louisville. Bluegrass and fried chicken rounded out the rest of the green category.
Of all the remaining clues, sand dollar and blu-ray stuck out like sore thumbs. I tried to think of similarities and realize they both share the same shape, and that coaster and tortilla could be added to the mix to solve yellow.
Sinners was one of my favorite movies last year, and between that and twilight I figured vampires had to be the connection. Blade came easily enough, but it took me a second to remember near dark.
That left purple as today's rote fill with hover, skate, snow, and surf.
