Spoilers below. The NYT Connections hints and answers for Saturday, December 28 refer to game #566, published on Saturday, December 28, 2024. The four groups are easy phrases, Greek-mythology objects, things you can figuratively kick, and words beginning with possessive-pronoun fragments: HER, HIS, ITS, and MINE.
Connections gives players 16 words and asks them to divide the words into four groups of four sharing a common theme. Puzzle #566 mixes familiar idioms with Greek mythology and a hidden-prefix category, making exact phrase and word-pattern recognition more useful than broad thematic guesses.
Key takeaways
- NYT Connections game #566 was published on Saturday, December 28, 2024.
- The yellow group is “NOTHING TO IT!”: EASY, NO SWEAT, PIECE OF CAKE, and SURE THING.
- The green group contains four objects from Greek mythology, including the less familiar AEGIS.
- The blue group completes familiar expressions with “kick”: CAN, HABIT, HORNETS’ NEST, and TIRES.
- The purple group hides HER, HIS, ITS, and MINE at the beginnings of HERSHEY, HISTAMINE, ITSY, and MINEFIELD.
Spoilers below. The NYT Connections hints and answers for Saturday, December 28 refer to game #566, published on Saturday, December 28, 2024. The four groups are easy phrases, Greek-mythology objects, things you can figuratively kick, and words beginning with possessive-pronoun fragments: HER, HIS, ITS, and MINE.
Connections gives players 16 words and asks them to divide the words into four groups of four sharing a common theme. The official New York Times Connections help page describes that basic format. For puzzle #566, the most reliable solving approach is to look for exact mechanisms—phrase completion, hidden word beginnings, or a precise mythological category—rather than accepting a loose association.
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What are the NYT Connections #566 answers?
The complete answer key for NYT Connections #566 is shown below. The puzzle was reported with the same categories and entries by Parade on December 28, 2024 and independently cross-checked by TechRadar’s game #566 answer report.
| Color | Category | Answers |
|---|---|---|
| Yellow | “NOTHING TO IT!” | EASY, NO SWEAT, PIECE OF CAKE, SURE THING |
| Green | Objects from Greek myth | AEGIS, APPLE OF DISCORD, GOLDEN FLEECE, PANDORA’S BOX |
| Blue | Proverbial things to kick | CAN, HABIT, HORNETS’ NEST, TIRES |
| Purple | Starting with possessive pronouns | HERSHEY, HISTAMINE, ITSY, MINEFIELD |
What are the yellow answers?
The yellow category is “NOTHING TO IT!”, meaning something is easy, effortless, or virtually guaranteed. Its four answers are EASY, NO SWEAT, PIECE OF CAKE, and SURE THING.
| Answer | Why it fits |
|---|---|
| EASY | Directly describes something requiring little effort. |
| NO SWEAT | An idiom meaning a task presents no difficulty. |
| PIECE OF CAKE | An idiom for something very easy. |
| SURE THING | Can describe an assured outcome or an easy task. |
This is the most immediately recognizable group in the puzzle. “Piece of cake” and “no sweat” are especially strong signals, while “sure thing” can be slightly more ambiguous because it may describe certainty rather than ease.
What are the green answers, and what does “aegis” mean?
The green category is OBJECTS FROM GREEK MYTH: AEGIS, APPLE OF DISCORD, GOLDEN FLEECE, and PANDORA’S BOX. The category is the puzzle’s main background-knowledge hurdle because AEGIS is less familiar than the other three entries.
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| Answer | Mythological reference |
|---|---|
| AEGIS | A shield or breastplate associated historically with Zeus or Athena. |
| APPLE OF DISCORD | The golden apple associated with Eris and the dispute that helped lead to the Trojan War. |
| GOLDEN FLEECE | The legendary fleece sought by Jason and the Argonauts. |
| PANDORA’S BOX | The artifact in the Pandora story; the phrase also describes opening the way to unforeseen problems. |
Merriam-Webster’s definition of aegis traces the word to the Greek aigís and explains its historical association with the shield or breastplate of Zeus or Athena. That definition makes AEGIS the key unlock for the green group. The Apple of Discord, Golden Fleece, and Pandora’s box are more recognizable mythological references, but their shared property is specifically that they are objects or artifacts from Greek tales—not simply names connected with Greek mythology.
If AEGIS or the other references sent you looking for more context, a Greek mythology book or a beginner’s guide to Greek mythology can be useful optional background reading. A mythology reference is not required to solve the puzzle, but it can make recurring names, objects, and stories easier to recognize in future word games.
What are the four things you can kick?
The blue category is PROVERBIAL THINGS TO KICK: CAN, HABIT, HORNETS’ NEST, and TIRES. Each answer completes a familiar expression with “kick,” so the connection is idiomatic rather than a literal grouping of objects normally kicked together.
| Answer | Expression | Meaning or use |
|---|---|---|
| CAN | Kick the can | Delay dealing with a problem, often by putting it off. |
| HABIT | Kick a habit | Stop an established behavior. |
| HORNETS’ NEST | Kick a hornets’ nest | Provoke trouble or anger. |
| TIRES | Kick the tires | Inspect or casually evaluate something before deciding. |
The phrase-completion mechanism is more important than the literal meaning of each word. “Kick the can” and “kick the tires” are familiar expressions, while “kick a habit” and “kick a hornets’ nest” complete the same grammatical pattern with different figurative meanings.
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The purple category is STARTING WITH POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS. The four entries begin with hidden possessive-pronoun fragments: HER in HERSHEY, HIS in HISTAMINE, ITS in ITSY, and MINE in MINEFIELD.
| Full entry | Hidden beginning | Possessive word |
|---|---|---|
| HERSHEY | HER | her |
| HISTAMINE | HIS | his |
| ITSY | ITS | its |
| MINEFIELD | MINE | mine |
This is the most overtly wordplay-driven group because the full meanings of HERSHEY, HISTAMINE, ITSY, and MINEFIELD do not form a normal theme. The connection appears at the start of each longer word. Once the entries are viewed as prefixes rather than as complete words, the category becomes exact.
Which NYT Connections #566 category was hardest?
For many solvers, the green Greek-mythology group was the main knowledge challenge because AEGIS is comparatively obscure. The purple group was the main pattern-recognition challenge because the possessive pronouns are hidden inside longer words. Yellow was the most direct group, and blue depended on recognizing four expressions that follow “kick.”
| Category | Primary skill | Potential trap |
|---|---|---|
| “NOTHING TO IT!” | Recognizing synonyms and idioms for ease. | SURE THING can suggest certainty instead of simplicity. |
| Objects from Greek myth | Mythology knowledge. | AEGIS may not be familiar, and not every myth-related word belongs. |
| Proverbial things to kick | Completing familiar phrases. | The category is figurative and idiomatic, not a literal physical grouping. |
| Starting with possessive pronouns | Spotting exact prefixes. | The full words have unrelated meanings, which can conceal the shared beginnings. |
How could you solve Connections #566 without spoilers?
Use the clues in increasing order of specificity, stopping before the answer list if you want to preserve the challenge:
- One group consists of phrases meaning that something is easy or requires little effort.
- One group contains legendary objects from ancient Greek tales.
- One group contains things that can be figuratively kicked; several are familiar idiomatic expressions.
- One group begins with hidden words that indicate ownership or possession.
A useful solving rule for this puzzle is to prefer a precise mechanism over a merely plausible theme. For example, the blue words are not simply things associated with feet or movement; each completes a recognizable expression with “kick.” Likewise, the purple words are connected by their initial letter strings, not by their full definitions.
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What is the answer date for Connections #566?
Connections #566 was the puzzle published on Saturday, December 28, 2024. The date matters because daily Connections numbers and answer pages are tied to a specific publication day; this answer key is not referring to a December 28 puzzle from another year.
The Bottom Line
NYT Connections #566, published Saturday, December 28, 2024, grouped EASY, NO SWEAT, PIECE OF CAKE, and SURE THING as easy expressions; AEGIS, APPLE OF DISCORD, GOLDEN FLEECE, and PANDORA’S BOX as Greek-mythology objects; CAN, HABIT, HORNETS’ NEST, and TIRES as things to kick; and HERSHEY, HISTAMINE, ITSY, and MINEFIELD as words beginning with possessive pronouns.
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