Today's NYT Connections Hints (and Answer) for Friday, February ...

If you’re looking for the Connections answer for Friday, February 21, 2025, read on—I’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solutions to all four categories. Along the way, I’ll explain the meanings of the trickier words and we’ll learn how everything fits together. Beware, there are spoilers below for February 21, NYT Connections #621! Read on if you want some hints (and then the answer) to today’s Connections game. 

If you want an easy way to come back to our Connections hints every day, bookmark this page. You can also find our past hints there as well, in case you want to know what you missed in a previous puzzle.

Below, I’ll give you some oblique hints at today’s Connections answers. And farther down the page, I’ll reveal the themes and the answers. Scroll slowly and take just the hints you need!

Credit: Connections/NYT

Hints for the themes in today’s Connections puzzle

Here are some spoiler-free hints for the groupings in today’s Connections:

• Yellow category - When there’s a problem, these things address it.
• Green category - The crops have grown, it’s time to ___.
• Blue category - You click on these icons to edit images. 
• Purple category - You may need to buy an alternate version of these items depending on which side of yours is dominant. 

BEWARE: Spoilers follow for today’s Connections puzzle!

We’re about to give away some of the answers. Scroll slowly if you don’t want the whole thing spoiled. (The full solution is a bit further down.)

A heads up about the tricky parts

I gotta be honest: I thought today’s purple category was a little silly and weak.

The EYEDROPPER allows you to sample color from one part of an image and use it somewhere else.

You might need a special BASEBALL GLOVE to make sure it fits your dominant hand. 

SOLUTION refers to something that FIXes a problem, but ERASER does not go with them.

What are the categories in today’s Connections?

• Yellow: WAY OF SOLVING A PROBLEM
• Green: COLLECT, AS FROM AN ORCHARD
• Blue: PHOTOSHOP TOOLS
• Purple: OBJECTS THAT MAY BE RIGHT- OR LEFT-HANDED

DOUBLE BEWARE: THE SOLUTION IS BELOW

Ready to learn the answers to today’s Connections puzzle? I give them all away below.

What are the yellow words in today’s Connections?

The yellow grouping is considered to be the most straightforward. The theme for today’s yellow group is WAY OF SOLVING A PROBLEM and the words are: ANSWER, FIX, REMEDY, SOLUTION.

What are the green words in today’s Connections?

The green grouping is supposed to be the second-easiest. The theme for today’s green category is COLLECT, AS FROM AN ORCHARD and the words are: GATHER, HARVEST, PICK, REAP.

What are the blue words in today’s Connections?

The blue grouping is the second-hardest. The theme for today’s blue category is PHOTOSHOP TOOLS and the words are: ERASER, EYEDROPPER, LASSO, MAGIC WAND.

What are the purple words in today’s Connections?

The purple grouping is considered to be the hardest. The theme for today’s purple category is OBJECTS THAT MAY BE RIGHT- OR LEFT-HANDED and the words are: BASEBALL GLOVE, CAN OPENER, GOLF CLUB, GUITAR.

How I solved today’s Connections

I think FIX, ANSWER, SOLUTION, and REMEDY go together as straightforward synonyms. ?

REAP, GATHER, HARVEST, and PICK are all words for gathering crops. ?

These last eight words are a little trickier. A MAGIC WAND is something you wave, perhaps to make a problem go away. I suppose you could wave or twirl a LASSO overhead, too. Hmm.

This definitely feels like a reach, but you might use a similar back-and-forth wrist motion for using an ERASER, a MAGIC WAND, a GUITAR, and a CAN OPENER. A LASSO might be the same. This is hard! It feels like a stretch, but I guess I’ll try ERASER, MAGIC WAND, GUITAR, and CAN OPENER. Nope! Not even a “one away.”

Oh, I’ve got it! ERASER, MAGIC WAND, LASSO, and EYEDROPPER are all tools in Photoshop. ?

That leaves BASEBALL GLOVE, GOLF CLUB, GUITAR, and CAN OPENER. I’ve used up all my brain juice on that blue category, so let’s see what this is. ? OBJECTS THAT MAY BE RIGHT- OR LEFT-HANDED? OK, that… feels like a stretch. 

How to play Connections

I have a full guide to playing Connections, but here’s a refresher on the rules:

First, find the Connections game either on the New York Times website or in their Games app (formerly the Crossword app). You’ll see a game board with 16 tiles, each with one word or phrase. Your job is to select a group of four tiles that have something in common. Often they are all the same type of thing (for example: RAIN, SLEET, HAIL, and SNOW are all types of wet weather) but sometimes there is wordplay involved (for example, BUCKET, GUEST, TOP TEN, and WISH are all types of lists: bucket list, guest list, and so on).

Select four items and hit the Submit button. If you guessed correctly, the category and color will be revealed. (Yellow is easiest, followed by green, then blue, then purple.) If your guess was incorrect, you’ll get a chance to try again.

You win when you’ve correctly identified all four groups. But if you make four mistakes before you finish, the game ends and the answers are revealed.

How to win Connections

The most important thing to know to win Connections is that the groupings are designed to be tricky. Expect to see overlapping groups. For example, one puzzle seemed to include six breakfast foods: BACON, EGG, PANCAKE, OMELET, WAFFLE, and CEREAL. But BACON turned out to be part of a group of painters along with CLOSE, MUNCH, and WHISTLER, and EGG was in a group of things that come by the dozen (along with JUROR, ROSE, and MONTH). So don’t hit “submit” until you’ve confirmed that your group of four contains only those four things.

If you’re stuck, another strategy is to look at the words that seem to have no connection to the others. If all that comes to mind when you see WHISTLER is the painting nicknamed “Whistler’s Mother,” you might be on to something. When I solved that one, I ended up googling whether there was a painter named Close, because Close didn’t fit any of the obvious themes, either.

Another way to win when you’re stuck is, obviously, to read a few helpful hints–which is why we share these pointers every day. Check back tomorrow for the next puzzle!