NYT Connections Hints #845

NYT Connections Hints #837: Hints, Answers and Tips for 25 Sep 2025

ByAqib Shahzad

The New York Times Connections puzzle has become a daily ritual for millions of word puzzle enthusiasts around the globe. This brain-teasing game challenges players to identify four groups of four related words from a grid of 16 seemingly unrelated terms. Whether you’re a seasoned solver or just discovering this addictive puzzle, today’s game #837 offers a fascinating mix of categories that will test your knowledge across politics, entertainment, food, and mythology.

If you’re stuck on today’s puzzle or want to improve your solving strategy, you’ve come to the right place. We’ll walk through comprehensive hints, reveal the answers, and share expert tips to help you master future Connections puzzles. Each day brings new challenges, and understanding the patterns can make all the difference between success and frustration.

Today’s puzzle features 16 intriguing words: BLUE, LEFT, LIBERAL, PROGRESSIVE, CONE, CUP, SHAKE, SPLIT, DEPARTED, GOOD SHEPHERD, MARTIAN, RAINMAKER, FICTIONAL BOXER, GREEK/ROMAN GOD, SPACECRAFT, and THEATER. At first glance, these terms might seem completely random, but hidden within this collection are four distinct categories waiting to be discovered.

Quick Recap: NYT Connections Game #836

Before diving into today’s challenge, let’s briefly review yesterday’s puzzle. Game #836 tested players with categories ranging from everyday objects to pop culture references. Many solvers found the entertainment category particularly tricky, as it required knowledge of specific movies or TV shows. The key lesson from yesterday’s puzzle was the importance of thinking beyond literal meanings—sometimes the connections are metaphorical or require cultural knowledge.

Yesterday’s puzzle reinforced a crucial Connections strategy: when you’re confident about a category, commit to it early. Hesitation often leads to second-guessing, which can derail your entire solving process. This principle becomes especially important when tackling today’s more challenging categories.

Strategic Hints for NYT Connections Game #837

Let’s begin with some gentle nudges that won’t spoil the solving experience but will help guide your thinking in the right direction.

General Approach Hints:

  • One category relates to political ideology and voting patterns
  • Another group involves treats you might order at an ice cream shop
  • A third category connects to Hollywood and a specific A-list actor
  • The final group shares something mythological in common

Difficulty Assessment:
Today’s puzzle sits at medium difficulty. The ice cream category should be the easiest to spot, while the mythology connection might prove most challenging. The political category could trip up some solvers who think too literally about color associations.

Word Association Clues:
Think about contexts where these words might appear together. Some words have multiple meanings—don’t get trapped by the most obvious interpretation. Consider both literal and figurative connections, and remember that proper nouns often signal themed categories.

Category-Specific Hints Without Spoilers

🟨 Yellow Category Hint: These words describe a particular side of the political spectrum. Think about how politicians and voters might be classified ideologically. This isn’t about literal colors, despite one misleading word in the group.

🟩 Green Category Hint: Picture yourself at Ben & Jerry’s or your favorite ice cream parlor. What would you ask for when placing your order? These are all options you might request when getting a frozen treat.

🟦 Blue Category Hint: This category celebrates the filmography of one of Hollywood’s most versatile actors. All these titles need the same article added to their beginning to become recognizable movie names from the past two decades.

🟪 Purple Category Hint: This is the trickiest category, involving a shared name from Greek mythology. Think about famous mythological figures and how their names might appear in different contexts—from ancient stories to modern space exploration to entertainment venues.

Advanced Strategy Tips

Pattern Recognition: Start by scanning for the most obvious connections. Ice cream terms often jump out first because they represent concrete, everyday objects. Political terms can be trickier because they’re more abstract, but they often cluster around similar concepts.

Process of Elimination: If you’re confident about 12 words across three categories, the remaining four must form the final group. This strategy works particularly well when you’ve identified easier categories first.

Avoiding Red Herrings: Be cautious of words that seem to belong to multiple categories. For instance, some words might have both political and non-political meanings. The game designers often include these deliberate misdirections.

Cultural Knowledge: Many Connections puzzles require pop culture awareness. If you see entertainment-related terms, consider actors, directors, franchises, or shared themes across different media.

Complete Solutions for NYT Connections Game #837

🟨 Yellow Group – Left-leaning (Politically):
BLUE, LEFT, LIBERAL, PROGRESSIVE

🟩 Green Group – Ice Cream Parlor Orders:
CONE, CUP, SHAKE, SPLIT

🟦 Blue Group – Matt Damon Movies (with “The”):
DEPARTED, GOOD SHEPHERD, MARTIAN, RAINMAKER

🟪 Purple Group – Named “Apollo”:
FICTIONAL BOXER, GREEK/ROMAN GOD, SPACECRAFT, THEATER

Understanding Each Connection

Political Terminology (Yellow): This category brings together terms associated with liberal or progressive political ideologies. BLUE represents Democratic-leaning states (“blue states”), while LEFT refers to the left wing of the political spectrum. LIBERAL and PROGRESSIVE are direct political descriptors. The challenge here was recognizing that BLUE wasn’t referring to the literal color but to its political connotation.

Ice Cream Orders (Green): These represent different ways to serve or contain ice cream. A CONE holds scooped ice cream, while a CUP provides an alternative container. A SHAKE blends ice cream with milk, and a SPLIT typically refers to a banana split dessert. This category relied on everyday food service knowledge.

Matt Damon Filmography (Blue): Each word becomes a Matt Damon movie when preceded by “The.” THE DEPARTED (2006), THE GOOD SHEPHERD (2006), THE MARTIAN (2015), and THE RAINMAKER (1997) showcase Damon’s diverse career spanning crime thrillers, spy dramas, science fiction, and legal dramas.

Apollo Connections (Purple): This was the most sophisticated category, requiring knowledge across multiple domains. Apollo appears as a FICTIONAL BOXER (Rocky Balboa’s opponent Apollo Creed), a GREEK/ROMAN GOD (Apollo, god of music and prophecy), a SPACECRAFT (the Apollo space program), and a THEATER (various Apollo Theaters, most famously in Harlem).

Why These Connections Work

The genius of today’s puzzle lies in its range of reference points. The political category tests civic knowledge, while the ice cream group draws on everyday experiences. The Matt Damon category rewards movie buffs, and the Apollo theme showcases the puzzle’s ability to connect ancient mythology with modern culture.

Each category demonstrates different types of word relationships. The political terms share conceptual similarity, the ice cream words belong to the same functional domain, the movie titles share a structural pattern (article + word), and the Apollo items share a proper noun across different contexts.

Mastering Future NYT Connections Puzzles

Building Cultural Literacy: Regular players should cultivate broad knowledge across entertainment, politics, food, sports, and history. The more contexts you’re familiar with, the more patterns you’ll recognize.

Developing Word Flexibility: Practice thinking about words in multiple contexts. A word like “BLUE” might be a color, an emotion, a political designation, or part of an idiom. Successful solvers consider all possibilities before committing to categories.

Time Management: Don’t spend too long on any single category. If you’re stuck, move on and let your subconscious work on the problem. Often, solving one category provides clarity for the others.

Learning from Mistakes: When you miss connections, analyze why. Were you thinking too literally? Did you lack cultural knowledge? Understanding your blind spots helps you improve for future puzzles.

Understanding the Game’s Logic

Connections puzzles follow certain design principles. Categories typically progress from concrete to abstract, with yellow being most straightforward and purple most challenging. The game designers often include deliberate misdirections—words that could belong to multiple categories but only work in one.

Theme diversity keeps puzzles interesting. You might see categories spanning food, entertainment, wordplay, geography, or science. This variety ensures that different players can find their strengths while being challenged in unfamiliar areas.

Advanced Solving Techniques

Group Visualization: Try to imagine each potential group of four words in a specific context. Can you picture all four ice cream terms being used in the same conversation? This mental exercise helps validate connections.

Systematic Elimination: Work through potential groupings methodically. If you suspect a political category, test all political-sounding words together. If they don’t all fit, adjust your hypothesis.

Pattern Matching: Look for structural similarities. Do certain words need prefixes or suffixes to make sense together? Are they all parts of speech? This analytical approach can reveal hidden connections.

Confidence Scaling: Rate your certainty about each potential group. Start with your most confident category, then use process of elimination for trickier connections.

Frequently Asked Questions

How difficult was today’s NYT Connections #837 compared to recent puzzles?

Today’s puzzle ranks as medium difficulty. The ice cream category provided an accessible entry point, while the Apollo theme challenged players’ cultural knowledge. Compared to recent puzzles, it offered a good balance of straightforward and sophisticated connections.

What makes the Matt Damon movie category tricky for some players?

This category required recognizing that each word needed “The” added as a prefix to become a movie title. Players unfamiliar with Damon’s filmography or those thinking about the words in isolation might have struggled. Additionally, some might have confused these with movies by other actors.

Why do political categories often appear in Connections puzzles?

Political categories test players’ understanding of contemporary culture and civic knowledge. They also demonstrate how the same concepts can be expressed through different terms, making them ideal for word association puzzles.

How can I improve at identifying themed categories like the Apollo group?

Building broader cultural literacy helps immensely. Read widely, watch documentaries, and stay curious about connections between different fields. The Apollo category required knowledge spanning sports, mythology, space exploration, and entertainment—areas that might seem unrelated but share common threads.

What’s the best strategy when I’m down to my last guess?

If you’ve identified three categories and have four remaining words, they must form the final group by elimination. However, if you’re uncertain about one of your identified categories, reconsider your groupings. Sometimes the most obvious connection isn’t correct, and you need to think more creatively.

How do I avoid getting stuck on red herring connections?

Stay flexible in your thinking. If a potential category seems too easy or obvious, double-check whether all four words truly belong together. The game often includes words that could fit multiple themes, so test your assumptions thoroughly.

Looking Ahead: Preparing for NYT Connections #838

Tomorrow’s puzzle will bring fresh challenges and new opportunities to test your word association skills. Based on recent patterns, expect continued variety in category types. The best preparation involves staying curious about the world around you and practicing flexible thinking.

Keep expanding your cultural knowledge through diverse reading, movie watching, and staying informed about current events. The more contexts you understand, the more connections you’ll recognize in future puzzles.

Remember that improvement comes through consistent practice and learning from both successes and mistakes. Each puzzle teaches valuable lessons about pattern recognition, cultural literacy, and strategic thinking that will serve you well in future challenges.

Whether you solved today’s puzzle easily or found it challenging, you’ve engaged in a rewarding mental exercise that sharpens cognitive skills while providing entertainment. Tomorrow brings new words, new connections, and new opportunities to demonstrate your puzzle-solving prowess.

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