If youre looking for the Connections answer for Sunday, January 12, 2025, read onIll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solutions to all four categories. Along the way, Ill explain the meanings of the trickier words and well learn how everything fits together. Beware, there are spoilers below for January 12, NYT Connections #581! Read on if you want some hints (and then the answer) to todays 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, Ill give you some oblique hints at todays Connections answers. And farther down the page, Ill reveal the themes and the answers. Scroll slowly and take just the hints you need!

Credit: Connections/NYT Hints for the themes in todays Connections puzzleHere are some spoiler-free hints for the groupings in todays Connections:

Yellow category - Stuff thats made up.

Green category - Verbs for catching the attention of someone you fancy.

Blue category - They were all playable on the same retro console.

Purple category - They all have a single word in common, but it means different things to some of them.

BEWARE: Spoilers follow for todays Connections puzzle!Were about to give away some of the answers. Scroll slowly if you dont want the whole thing spoiled. (The full solution is a bit further down.)

A heads up about the tricky partsSONIC THE HEDGEHOG is a classic video game, but it does not belong to todays video game category. To figure out where it goes, think of the name of Sonics sidekick.

ROMANCE and FANTASY might be the names of book genres, but they dont go together today. ROMANCE is a verb.

INVENTION doesnt refer to a new gadget created by an inventorit describes something imaginary.

What are the categories in todays Connections?Yellow: FABRICATION

Green: WOO

Blue: CLASSIC ATARI GAMES

Purple: THINGS FEATURING TAILS

DOUBLE BEWARE: THE SOLUTION IS BELOWReady to learn the answers to todays Connections puzzle? I give them all away below.

What are the yellow words in todays Connections?The yellow grouping is considered to be the most straightforward. The theme for todays yellow group is FABRICATION and the words are: FAIRY TALE, FANTASY, FICTION, INVENTION.

What are the green words in todays Connections?The green grouping is supposed to be the second-easiest. The theme for todays green category is WOO and the words are: CHARM, COURT, PURSUE, ROMANCE.

What are the blue words in todays Connections?The blue grouping is the second-hardest. The theme for todays blue category is CLASSIC ATARI GAMES and the words are: ASTEROIDS, BREAKOUT, CENTIPEDE, DEFENDER.

What are the purple words in todays Connections?The purple grouping is considered to be the hardest. The theme for todays purple category is THINGS FEATURING TAILS and the words are: COIN TOSS, COMETS, DRESS COAT, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG.

How I solved todays ConnectionsAll right, I see some video games on the board: ASTEROIDS, CENTIPEDE, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG. Not sure about a fourth yet.

I also see book genres: FICTION, ROMANCE, FANTASY, FAIRY TALE. However, I also see words referring to the act of wooing a partner: COURT, ROMANCE, CHARM, PURSUE. That second grouping feels like a stronger hit to me, because FICTION encompasses the other genres in that grouping.

Ah, FAIRY TALE, INVENTION, FANTASY, and FICTION are all synonyms for the products of wishful thinking.

Oh, I think DEFENDER is actually the fourth game, now that I think about it. Lets put that with ASTEROIDS, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, and CENTIPEDE. One away. Dang. Ah, BREAKOUT is also an old video game.

OK, so I know COMETS, COIN TOSS, and DRESS COAT go together, then. I just have to figure out which of the others goes with it. Oh, those are all things that have tails! A COIN TOSS can be heads or tails, a COMET has a tail that streaks through the sky, etc. Oh, that means SONIC THE HEDGEHOG actually goes with it, because Sonics sidekick is named Tails. Tricky!

That means ASTEROID, CENTIPEDE, BREAKOUT, and DEFENDER are the video games. Are they all Atari games, too? Yep!

Connections Puzzle #581 How to play ConnectionsI have a full guide to playing Connections, but heres 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). Youll 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, youll get a chance to try again.

You win when youve 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 ConnectionsThe 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 dont hit submit until youve confirmed that your group of four contains only those four things.

If youre 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 Whistlers 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 didnt fit any of the obvious themes, either.

Another way to win when youre stuck is, obviously, to read a few helpful hintswhich is why we share these pointers every day. Check back tomorrow for the next puzzle!