Your Ultimate Guide to the Connections Puzzle for January 20, 2025
If you’re on the hunt for the Connections solution for Monday, January 20, 2025, this is the place to be! This article provides a collection of hints, tips, and strategies alongside the answers for each of the four categories. We’ll dive into the meanings of some of the more challenging words, piecing together how everything connects. Caution: Spoilers for January 20, NYT Connections #589 are provided below! Continue reading if you’d like hints along with the final answers.
To ensure you can easily revisit our daily Connections hints, consider bookmarking this page. Previous hints are also readily available here, so you can catch up on any puzzles you may have missed.
What follows are indirect clues to today’s Connection answers. For a complete revelation, scroll down on this page. Feel free to take only what you need!
Spoiler-Free Hints for Today’s Connections Puzzle Themes
Here are some hints without revealing too much for the categories in today’s Connections:
- A yellow category referring to someone juggling multiple tasks through specific actions.
- A green category where movements go back and forth.
- A blue category named after a beloved cartoon featuring a brawny sailor.
- A purple category that serves as a fill-in-the-blank, referencing an item that lies under a quilt or duvet.
Warning: Spoilers Ahead!
Prepare for some reveal of answers. Proceed with caution to avoid spoiling your game. (The complete solution is provided a bit further down.)
Understanding the Tricky Elements
The words ELBOW, SHOULDER, and FOREARM belong to different categories, with SHOULDER acting as a verb.
CHEAT and CROOK are not related to each other; remember, CROOK refers to a noun like “the crook of one’s neck.”
The items from the blue category are inspired by a live-action film that starred Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall.
Today’s Connection Categories
- Yellow: TAKE ON, AS A RESPONSIBILITY
- Green: CORNERS
- Blue: ASSOCIATED WITH POPEYE
- Purple: ___ SHEET
Proceed with Caution: Solutions Revealed Below
Ready for the answers to today’s puzzle? The solutions are shared below.
Yellow Category Words
This group is recognized as the simplest. The theme is TAKE ON, AS A RESPONSIBILITY, comprised of: ASSUME, BEAR, HANDLE, SHOULDER.
Green Category Words
The second most accessible category, themed as CORNERS, includes: ANGLE, BEND, CROOK, ELBOW.
Blue Category Words
This is the second hardest category, associated with POPEYE, featuring: ANCHOR, FOREARM, PIPE, SPINACH.
Purple Category Words
Marked as the most challenging, this category revolves around ___ SHEET consisting of: BALANCE, CHEAT, COOKIE, FITTED.
How the Puzzle was Solved
SPINACH and FOREARM directly point to Popeye. PIPE fits right in too. It seems that CROOK, ELBOW, BEND, and ANGLE could connect as they relate to bends in a pipeline. 
SHOULDER and FOREARM might connect, but without ELBOW, that’s unlikely. However, SHOULDER, BEAR, HANDLE, and ASSUME align well under taking responsibility. 
It became clear that ANCHOR rounds out the Popeye group along with PIPE, SPINACH, and FOREARM. 
This leaves us with FITTED, COOKIE, CHEAT, and BALANCE, all related to the word “sheet” — Fitted sheets are for beds, cookie sheets for bakers, cheat sheets for quick reference, and balance sheets for accountants. 
Connections Puzzle #589
Instructions for Playing Connections
A comprehensive guide to playing Connections exists, but here’s a brief recap of the rules:
First, locate the Connections game either on the New York Times website or in their Games app (previously the Crossword app). You’ll encounter a game board displaying 16 tiles—each holding a word or phrase. Your mission is to pick a set of four tiles that share a common thread. In many cases, these will all share a specific type—for instance, RAIN, SLEET, HAIL, and SNOW classify as forms of precipitation. Sometimes, wordplay adds an additional layer of challenge (for example: BUCKET, GUEST, TOP TEN, and WISH represent various kinds of lists: bucket list, guest list, and so forth).
Submit your selected four tiles. If you’re correct, the corresponding category and its color will appear (Yellow being the easiest, then green, blue, and finally purple). If the guess doesn’t match, you can try again.
Victory occurs once all four groups have been correctly identified. However, making four mistakes before completion signals the end, revealing the answers instead.
Strategies for Winning Connections
To conquer Connections, it’s crucial to understand that the groupings can be quite deceptive. Overlapping groups are common. For instance, one puzzle had six breakfast items: BACON, EGG, PANCAKE, OMELET, WAFFLE, and CEREAL. Yet BACON actually belonged with painters such as CLOSE, MUNCH, and WHISTLER, while EGG associated with items found in dozens alongside JUROR, ROSE, and MONTH. Thus, be certain that your chosen group of four holds only those four elements before submitting.
When facing a mental block, consider examining words that seem distinctly unrelated to others. For example, discovering WHISTLER’s connection to “Whistler’s Mother” could lead you to something intriguing. Once solved, it can prompt research into the relationship between other seemingly out-of-place items.
Another helpful tactic during challenging moments is seeking out these daily tips—check back to find the forthcoming puzzle!
