Find the links between the words to win today's game of Connections.gettyLooking for Tuesdays Connections hints and answers instead? You can find them here:Hey, everyone! Happy New Year! I hope 2025 brings you everything you ever wanted. As us Scots say, lang may your lum reek (or long may your chimney smoke, an expression that wishes prosperity upon you).Ive had my fair share of New Years mishaps, however. About a decade ago, my partner at the time and I were in Berlin for the festivities. People there bring in the New Year by setting off fireworks in the street.Unfortunately, one exploded near her bare leg, causing a burn. Cue a hasty retreat to our holiday rental and a call to first responders. The burn was deep but fairly small and not too serious, thankfully. Still, finding a pharmacy that was open on January 1 and getting the wound treatments we needed was a challenge, especially considering that neither of us had a particularly strong grasp of German.Needless to say, I hope youre being careful out there and mindful of your surroundings, however youre celebrating the occasion.Before we get started, Ive started a discussion group for Connections and this column on Discord. You can chat about each game (and other topics) with me and other folks. Im always interested to find out how other people approach the game, so join us! Its fun.MORE FOR YOUIts also the best way to give me any feedback about the column, especially on the rare(!) occasions that I mess something up.Todays NYT Connections hints and answers for Wednesday, January 1, are coming right up.How To Play ConnectionsConnections is a free, popular New York Times daily word game. You get a new puzzle at midnight every day. You can play on the NYT website or Games app.Youre presented with a grid of 16 words. Your task is to arrange them into four groups of four by figuring out the links between them. The groups could be things like items you can click, names for research study participants or words preceded by a body part.Theres only one solution for each puzzle, and youll need to be careful when it comes to words that might fit into more than one category. You can shuffle the words to perhaps help you see links between them.Each group is color coded. The yellow group is usually the easiest to figure out, blue and green fall in the middle, and the purple group is usually the most difficult one. The purple group often involves wordplay.Select four words you think go together and press Submit. If you make a guess and youre incorrect, youll lose a life. If youre close to having a correct group, you might see a message telling you that youre one word away from getting it right, but youll still need to figure out which one to swap.If you make four mistakes, its game over. Lets make sure that doesnt happen with the help of some hints, and, if youre really struggling, todays Connections answers. As with Wordle and other similar games, its easy to share results with your friends on social media and group chats.If you have an NYT All Access or Games subscription, you can access the publications Connections archive. This includes every previous game of Connections, so you can go back and play any of those that you have missed.Aside from the first 60 games or so, you should be able to find my hints for each grid via Google if you need them! Just click here and add the date of the game for which you need clues or the answers to the search query.What Are Todays Connections Hints?Scroll slowly! Just after the hints for each of todays Connections groups, Ill reveal what the groups are without immediately telling you which words go into them.Todays 16 words are...EARTHWORMCLOGSLUGWATERFALLGLOWSTICKRAINDROPCANALFIREFLYWINDMILLRADIUMSKYDIVESALAMANDERAURORAEELTULIPGATEGRASHAnd the hints for todays Connections groups are:Yellow group slithery crittersGreen group light em upBlue group like bicycles and GoudaPurple group it all comes tumbling down at the endWhat Are Todays Connections Groups?Need some extra help?Be warned: were starting to get into spoiler territory.Todays Connections groups are...Yellow group slimy animalsGreen group things that luminesceBlue group Dutch symbolsPurple group ending with synonyms for plungeWhat Are Todays Connections Answers?Spoiler alert! Dont scroll any further down the page until youre ready to find out todays Connections answers.This is your final warning!Todays Connections answers are...Yellow group slimy animals (EARTHWORM, EEL, SALAMANDER, SLUG)Green group things that luminesce (AURORA, FIREFLY, GLOWSTICK, RADIUM)Blue group Dutch symbols (CANAL, CLOG, TULIP, WINDMILL)Purple group ending with synonyms for plunge (GATECRASH, RAINDROP, SKYDIVE, WATERFALL)Its been quite a few days since my last perfect game and that didnt change today, but Im very happy to extend my streak into double figures as the New Year gets underway. Heres how I fared:Drat, I was so sure I had the purples with EARTHWORM, WATERFALL, FIREFLY and WINDMILL with the first half of each word being elements (shout out to my fellow Captain Planet fans). I then tried a guess of EARTHWORM, WATERFALL, RAINDROP and GATECRASH all ending in verbs and was one away from a group. HmmAt that point, I figured the slithery animals had to be a group and, sure enough, I had the yellows. I roped WINDMILL into my previous guess but that was another mistake, but given that SKYDIVE ended in a verb too I at last understood that had to go with the purples. A little sneaky to have that one in there given that the entire word is also a possible meaning of plunge.With just eight words left, the blues then jumped out at me. That left the greens, for which I did realize the connection before submitting, for the win.Thats all there is to it for todays Connections clues and answers. Be sure to check my blog tomorrow for hints and the solution for Thursdays game if you need them.P.S. In the interest of keeping the party mood going, heres a song from a band that hails from my hometown. Lets Go Round Again might not be the best-known song from Average White Band, but its my favorite of theirs. I also just realized its thematically relevant in the sense that were on the start of another trip around the Sun:Have a great day! Make sure to drink enough water! Call someone you love!If youre so inclined, please do follow my blog for more coverage of Connections and other word games and even some video game news, insights and analysis. It helps me out a lot! Also, follow me on Bluesky! Its fun there.