Looking for today's Connections answers? The Connections answers on February 11 for puzzle #245 are a little easier than yesterday's, with the Connections Companion rating this puzzle's difficulty at 2.7 out of 5.
Every day, we update this article with Connections hints and tips to help you find all 4 of today's answers. And if the hints aren't enough, you'll find all 4 answers below, with the category titles and the correlating words. Plus, we're including a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #244, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.
Spoilers lie ahead for Connections #245. 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.
If you need hints to solve the groupings, then here are the themes of each, based on the order of difficulty:
- 🟨 Yellow: On and on and on and on
- 🟩 Green: Ship ahoy!
- 🟦 Blue: Skippers
- 🟪 Purple: Systems of governance
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.
Alright then, here's a larger hint: Today's Connections may have you all at sea, with a wide selection of words you might need your sea legs for. Avoid floundering by honing in what you might use to best navigate watery masses, and who you might employ to skipper them.
Today's Connections answers
So, what are today's Connections answers for game #245?
Drumroll, please...
- 🟨 Monotonous sounds: Buzz, Drone, Hum, Purr
- 🟩 Boats: Barge, Dory, Scow, Sloop
- 🟦 Captains: America, Hook, Morgan, Nemo
- 🟪 Prefixes with -cracy: Auto, Bureau, Demo, Pluto
In a rare turn of events, I knocked off the trickiest purple category before all of the others, though with no shortage of luck involved in doing so.
My only thought, when combining Auto, Demo, Pluto, and Nemo, was the commonality of their last letter and the similar sound it generates. But when I was informed I was only one away, I looked a little closer. The first three, of course, can be used with "-cracy" to describe a system of governance, while as far as I'm aware Nemocracy is not a government with a sea captain at its helm. Bureau(cracy) though, works nicely. Purple complete.
With Jules Verne's famous seafarer already in my mind, I spotted Hook and Morgan as two other well-known captains. Captain America completes the set, not to mention a fascinating dinner party guest list.
Well immersed in the maritime theme now, I couldn’t help but think of the gentle Drone and Hum of a boat when sleeping within its cabins, while Herman Melville, in Moby Dick, describes the sea as like “hearth-stone cats purring against the gunwale”. And there we have the monotonous sounds of the yellow category: Buzz, Drone, Hum, Purr.
All that remained were Barge, Dory, Scow, and Sloop. The theme for which, by now landlubbers, was all too apparent. They are, of course, types of boats. Hoist the sails and anchors aweigh!
Yesterday's Connections answers
Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Connections answers for game #244, which had a difficulty rating of 3.2 out of 5, according to the Connections Companion.
Today's Connections seemed a busy pet shop of words, with all manner of critters and creatures to choose from. There was no way I was going to be able to decide which of these animals were coming home with me, so I had to trim the herd first.
Ignoring their soft meows and gentle neighs, I went straight to the gossiping birds' section, where Snitch just couldn't keep his mouth shut. There, alongside Canary, Fink, and Rat, I found the yellow category, a nest of stool pigeons, notorious for singing to anyone who'd listen.
Feeling like Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, I shimmied my way to the supplies aisle where Stuff, Jam, Squeeze, and Pack were all very tightly arranged. Obvious candidates to shove together into a category, I thought, and I was right.
- 🟨 Stool pigeon: Canary, fink, rat, snitch
- 🟩 Cram into a tight space: Jam, pack, squeeze, stuff
- 🟦 Yoga poses: Cat, cow, mountain, triangle
- 🟪 ____ fly: Butter, dragon, fire, horse
Then, my streak hit a snag. The puzzle taunted me with partial matches that refused to make sense. Dragon, Fire, Mountain – they seemed to hint at a mythical landscape, but I couldn't find a fourth to complete the tale.
I juggled and rejigged the words in my mind, searching for a link. Butter...Fire...Spread? I was trying to butter too much bread with that line of thinking. A deep breath, and then it hit me – fly was the common denominator! Fire(fly), Dragon(fly), Horse(fly), and Butter(fly) were the airborne critters that completed the purple category.
All that remained were Triangle, Cow, Mountain, and Cat. What connection could they possibly have? Was it a poem, a song, a children's book? Only after a nudge from my wife, the yoga enthusiast, did the answer bend into position. They are all yoga poses, apparently. Cow? Really? Ok, then.
With that revelation, the final category contorted into place, and today's eventful trip to the pet store was over.
