Today's Connections has four hidden groups of four. Start with a gentle nudge and only open more if you need it.
Ready for a little sorting challenge? Take your time and enjoy the pattern hunt.
Hint 1: One word from each group
Each of these words belongs to a different group.
- Yellow (easiest): BRONZE
- Green: BANQUETTE
- Blue: CARRIER
- Purple (hardest): BBQING
Hint 2: A nudge for each group
A gentle push toward each theme, easiest to hardest.
- Think about materials used to shape lasting three-dimensional art.
- These are the spots people settle into when they eat out.
- These keep your phone chatting across faraway places.
- Each one hides the same royal-sounding tail at the very end.
Hint 3: Yellow (easiest) group theme
The yellow group is Sculpture Media.
Hint 4: Green group theme
The green group is Restaurant Seating Options.
Hint 5: Blue group theme
The blue group is Telecom.
Hint 6: Purple (hardest) group theme
The purple group is Ending In Chinese Dynasties.
Show all four answers
Sculpture Media
BRONZE, CLAY, MARBLE, PLASTER
Restaurant Seating Options
BANQUETTE, BOOTH, CHAIR, STOOL
Telecom
CARRIER, NETWORK, OPERATOR, PROVIDER
Ending In Chinese Dynasties
BBQING, HOMING, LOHAN, WU-TANG
About this puzzle
- Edited by Wyna Liu
- Groups are listed from easiest (yellow) to hardest (purple).
Connections deep dive
More about today's puzzle. Everything in this section can include the answer.
Why each word belongs in its group, with a short dictionary meaning where one exists.
Yellow (easiest): Sculpture Media
- BRONZE: (uncountable) A naturally occurring or man-made alloy of copper, usually in combination with tin, but also with one o...
- CLAY: A mineral substance made up of small crystals of silica and alumina, that is ductile when moist; the material of pre-...
- MARBLE: (uncountable, petrology) A metamorphic rock of crystalline limestone.
- PLASTER: (uncountable) A paste applied to the skin for healing or cosmetic purposes.
Green: Restaurant Seating Options
- BANQUETTE: An upholstered bench, e.g., along a wall of a restaurant or lounge area.
- BOOTH: A boxlike room or enclosure just big enough to accommodate one standing person, such as a phone booth or polling booth.
- CHAIR: An item of furniture used to sit on or in, comprising a seat, legs or wheels, back, and sometimes arm rests, for use ...
- STOOL: A seat, especially for one person and without armrests.
Blue: Telecom
- CARRIER: A person or object that carries someone or something else.
- NETWORK: Any interconnected group or system.
- OPERATOR: A person or organisation that operates a device, system, service, etc.
- PROVIDER: One who, or that which, provides a service, commodity, or the means for subsistence.
Purple (hardest): Ending In Chinese Dynasties
- BBQING
- HOMING: (video games, of a projectile) That self-adjusts its trajectory to home in on a target; (of a weapon) shooting such p...
- LOHAN: A surname from Irish.
- WU-TANG
Play today's Connections at The New York Times
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