Spoiler warning: Full solutions appear below. This is the archived Sunday, March 23, 2025 edition of NYT Connections, puzzle #651, not a current puzzle for another year.
Spoiler warning: The full answers to the archived NYT Connections puzzle for Sunday, March 23, 2025, appear below the hints. If you are still solving, stop after the word list or reveal only the hint level you need.
This was Connections puzzle #651. The date can be easy to misread: this is the March 23, 2025 edition, not a current puzzle for March 23 in another year.
The 16 words in Connections #651
Here is the complete grid, shown without categories:
#1 Best Overall
SMART, AIRPLANE, BACK, POCKET, GRAB, BUTTONS, STOP, FLY, FAIRY, ENTRANCE, BLACK, RIVET, WRIST, ABSORB, HOSPITAL, MACK
Hints for the March 23 Connections puzzle
These hints progress from the least revealing to the most revealing. Each group contains four words.
Yellow group
Hint: Hold someone’s attention or fascination.
Green group
Hint: Objects or beings that can be described as having wings.
Rank #2
Blue group
Hint: Words that can come before “watch.”
Purple group
Hint: Words repeated in the children’s clapping song “Miss Mary Mack.”
NYT Connections #651 answers
Spoilers begin here. The four categories and their words are listed below.
Yellow: CAPTIVATE
ABSORB, ENTRANCE, GRAB, RIVET
Each of these words can mean to seize or hold someone’s attention. A movie can absorb an audience, an unusual performance can entrance viewers, a story can grab their attention, and a mystery can rivet them to the screen.
Rank #3
ENTRANCE is the key trap. Most solvers will first read it as a noun meaning a doorway or entry point. In this group, it is a verb meaning “to captivate” or “to fascinate.”
Green: THINGS WITH WINGS
AIRPLANE, FAIRY, FLY, HOSPITAL
An airplane has wings, a fairy is conventionally portrayed with wings, and a fly is a winged insect. A hospital fits through the architectural meaning: a large hospital may be divided into separate wings.
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This is a deliberately mixed category. Three entries suggest literal wings immediately, while HOSPITAL depends on recognizing a building section as a “wing.” It is not referring to a medical object or an animal.
Rank #4
Blue: WORDS THAT MODIFY “WATCH”
POCKET, SMART, STOP, WRIST
Add “watch” to each word:
- POCKET + watch = pocket watch
- SMART + watch = smartwatch
- STOP + watch = stopwatch
- WRIST + watch = wristwatch
The category is phrased as words that modify “watch,” rather than simply “types of watches.” That wording can make the group less obvious, particularly because SMART and WRIST stand out as likely watch-related answers while POCKET and STOP may take longer to spot.
Purple: WORDS REPEATED IN “MISS MARY MACK”
BACK, BLACK, BUTTONS, MACK
These entries belong to the familiar children’s clapping song “Miss Mary Mack.” The group relies on recognizing the song’s repeated wording, including its name, rhyme words, and references to black clothing and buttons.
This is the most culture-dependent category in the puzzle. Solvers who know the song may see the connection quickly; those who do not may be left with four words that appear unrelated. As with other Connections categories based on a song or saying, familiarity can vary by age, country, and personal experience.
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The grid uses two especially common Connections mechanisms: polysemy, in which one word has multiple meanings, and phrase completion, in which words become connected when paired with another word.
- ENTRANCE changes grammatical role. It looks like a place to enter, but the answer uses the verb “entrance,” meaning captivate.
- HOSPITAL uses an architectural meaning of “wing.” The word does not describe a flying creature or machine; it describes a building that can contain separate wings.
- The watch group is easier to find in pieces. SMART and WRIST point toward “watch,” while POCKET and STOP complete the set.
- The purple group is based on cultural recall rather than a standard word relationship. “Miss Mary Mack” supplies BACK, BLACK, BUTTONS, and MACK, but that connection is difficult to infer without knowing the song.
Difficulty of Connections #651
One published retrospective gave this puzzle an approximate difficulty rating of 3 out of 5 and considered it harder than the preceding puzzle. That is an editorial assessment, not an official New York Times score. The rating makes sense: the yellow group contains a strong meaning-based trap, the green group mixes literal and architectural “wings,” and the purple group depends heavily on familiarity with a children’s song.
The archived date, puzzle number, word list, hints, and answer groupings are reported by Yahoo’s archive coverage of the puzzle. The print-book information comes from the publisher’s listing.
Frequently Asked Questions
The four groups were CAPTIVATE: ABSORB, ENTRANCE, GRAB, RIVET; THINGS WITH WINGS: AIRPLANE, FAIRY, FLY, HOSPITAL; words before WATCH: POCKET, SMART, STOP, WRIST; and words from “Miss Mary Mack”: BACK, BLACK, BUTTONS, MACK.
What was the answer to NYT Connections #651 on March 23, 2025?
“Entrance” is used as a verb meaning to fascinate or captivate, not as a noun meaning a doorway.
Why is ENTRANCE in the CAPTIVATE group?
A hospital can have architectural wings, meaning separate sections or extensions of the building.
Why is HOSPITAL considered something with wings?
The Bottom Line
Answer summary: #651 groups ABSORB, ENTRANCE, GRAB, and RIVET under CAPTIVATE; AIRPLANE, FAIRY, FLY, and HOSPITAL as things with wings; POCKET, SMART, STOP, and WRIST as words before “watch”; and BACK, BLACK, BUTTONS, and MACK as words from “Miss Mary Mack.”
Quick Recap
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