Today's puzzle is bussin. I think I died a little in writing that.
Find our guide to New York Times Connections answers and hints for July 13 below.
Spoilers lie ahead for Connections #1,128. Only read on if you want to know today's Connections answers.
Plus, we're including a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #1,127, 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
- Umbrella
- Salem
- Bucket
- Question
- Puss
- Grill
- Pump
- Kisser
- Mug
- Figaro
- Smackdown
- Drawer
- Examine
- Bussin
- Tom
- Peckish
We have the Connections categories below, but here's a hint without the actual titles. Try this out:
- 🟨 Yellow: Cross-examine
- 🟩 Green: A helping hand
- 🟦 Blue: Feline fairy tales
- 🟪 Purple: Begins with K
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: Interrogate
- 🟩 Green: Things with handles
- 🟦 Blue: Fictional cats
- 🟪 Purple: Starting with smooches
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 July 13 for puzzle #1,128 are significantly harder than yesterday's puzzle, with the Connections Companion rating this puzzle's difficulty at 2.8 out of 5.
- 🟨 Interrogate: Examine, grill, pump, question
- 🟩 Things with handles: Bucket, drawer, mug, umbrella
- 🟦 Fictional cats: Figaro, puss, salem, tom
- 🟪 Starting with smooches: Bussin, kisser, peckish, smackdown
I spent a lot of today's puzzle staring at the word "bussin" and making a face. But now that I've learned 'buss' is an old-timey word for kiss, I'm bristling less. While I was trying to figure out where the hell it fit in today's puzzle, I ended up spotting yellow with examine, grill, pump, and question.
Still no further to solving my bussin mystery, I started picturing certain clues and ended up noticing something similar among bucket, drawer, mug, and umbrella for green.
I broke down the remaining clues into their individual syllables and words, and realized kisser, peckish, and smackdown went together. I threw in bussin just to see if it'd work and with that purple was solved.
That left blue as today's rote fill with figaro, puss, salem, and tom.
Yesterday's Connections answers
- 🟨 Reproductive part of fruit: Pip, pit, seed, stone
- 🟩 Bit of fruit-flavored candy: Dot, nerd, runt, spree
- 🟦 Verbs in a college life slogan: Party, repeat, sleep, study
- 🟪 Starts of U.S. capitals: Den, mad, pho, sac
Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Connections answers for game #1,127, which had a difficulty rating of 2.2 out of 5.
I went down the line today, starting out by tapping into what I remembered from high school biology glass to nab pip, pit, seed, and stone for yellow.
After that came some scrumptious sweets in the form of different candy names, i.e. dot, nerd, runt, and spree (my favorite), for green.
From there I got lost reminiscing about those good ol' college days in finding blue with party, repeat, sleep, and study.
That left purple as today's rote fill with Den, mad, pho, and sac.
