Looking for clues for today's Connections answers? The Connections answers on February 13 for puzzle #613 are much, much easier than yesterday's puzzle, with the Connections Companion rating this puzzle's difficulty at 3 out of 5.
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.
Plus, we're including a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #612, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.
Spoilers lie ahead for Connections #613. Only read on if you want to know today's Connections answers.
Alternatively, visit our how to play NYT Connections guide for tips on how to solve the puzzle without our help.
Today's Connections answer — hints to help you solve it
Unlike our guide to today's Wordle answer, where we recommend the best Wordle start words as your strategy, 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.
Today's Connections words are: Guilt, Might, Mold, Ego, Power, Expression, Token, Must, Head, Will, Guide, Gesture, Can, Model, Symbol, and Blueprint.
If you need hints to solve the groupings, then here are the themes of each, based on the order of difficulty:
- 🟨 Yellow: Template
- 🟩 Green: Demonstration, as of appreciation
- 🟦 Blue: Modal verbs
- 🟪 Purple: ____ Trip
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.
Here's a larger hint: Make sure to recall your grammar lessons as a template for appreciation and don't go on a trip.
Today's Connections answers
So, what are today's Connections answers for game #613?
Drumroll, please...
- 🟨 Template: Blueprint, guide, model, mold
- 🟩 Demonstration of appreciation: Expression, gesture, symbol, token
- 🟦 Modal verbs: Can, might, must will
- 🟪 ____ Trip: Ego, trip, head, power
As I was reading the board, ego and power were essentially next to one another as I was going left to right. When I saw ego I near immediately though ego trip and power being so close easily leant itself to power trip. Locked in there, guilt being directly above power got me to guilt trip. It took a second to see head for head trip. Strange that three of the four purple words were stacked like that.
From there, I snagged green's expression, gesture, symbol and token with my thought being gratitude, close enough.
After that we picked up can, might, must and will as modal verbs but mostly because I was saving yellow's blueprint, guide, model and mold as templates.
I innately know what a modal verb is but had forgotten how they're described grammatically. According to Merriam Webster they are a group of auxiliary verbs that change another verb's meaning. "Modals may express permission, ability, prediction, possibility, or necessity."
Here's an example sentence: A trip like this can take hours more than one appreciates.
Yesterday's Connections answers
- 🟨 Documents of ownership: Certificate, deed, receipt, title
- 🟩 Bits in a variety show: Dance, monologue, sketch, song
- 🟦 Props for characters on "The Simpsons": Donut, Pacifier, Saxophone, and Skateboard
- 🟪 Starting with "Shake, Rattle, And Roll": Android, Rattlesnake, Rollerblade, Shakespeare
Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Connections answers for game #612, which had a difficulty rating of 4 out of 5, according to the Connections Companion.
Today was hard and for some the pop culture reference in the blue category will be a hard get, and I say that as someone who has watched a lot The Simpsons.
I saw deed and title which lead to receipt and certificate. Based on what I could see, I assumed this the yellow and saved this quartet for last.
Though, the green category which I did click next also could have been yellow with dance, monologue, sketch and song as parts of a variety show. My thought was stage performances.
I got stuck for a minute with the blue and purple categories and only really got purple next by mistake. I took an early strike for what I thought was a Blade Runner category with Android, Shakespeare, Monologue and Saxophone. Made total sense to me and was not correct.
With monologue gone, I was still thinking Blade Runner and recalled from my skating days the brand Blade Runner. I was forcing it at this point and I took another strike, but one that told me I was one away.
No, I was not seeing the Simpsons connection.
Still on my Blade Runner BS I threw in rattlesnake and dropped saxophone, because of the scene in the Snake Pit, even if that snake is an artificial boa. It worked. It shouldn't have but it did.
Anyway, so blue became my defacto category with donut (Homer), pacifier (Maggie), saxophone (Lisa) and skateboard (Bart).
I would not recommend chasing a lead the way I did today, even if it did work out.
