Need a nudge for the Sunday, March 23, 2025, NYT Connections puzzle? This is game #651. Start with the graduated hints below and stop before the spoiler section if you want to keep solving; the full groups and answers are farther down.
Hints for Connections #651
Connections asks you to sort 16 words into four groups of four. The hints below grow more specific, so you can reveal only as much as you need.
- Yellow: Under a spell.
- Green: They help you fly, but “wing” has another meaning too.
- Blue: You tell time with these.
- Purple: Think of clapping-game lyrics.
The board words are SMART, AIRPLANE, BACK, POCKET, GRAB, BUTTONS, STOP, FLY, FAIRY, ENTRANCE, BLACK, RIVET, MACK, WRIST, ABSORB, and HOSPITAL.
How to approach the tricky connections
If the obvious meanings do not produce four clean groups, test another sense of a word or see whether words make familiar phrases alongside a shared word. In this puzzle, “entrance” is a verb meaning to captivate, rather than a doorway. For the wing connection, think beyond aircraft: a fly has wings, and a hospital has wings too. The watch group relies on common compounds or phrases, while the last group draws on a familiar playground rhyme.
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#1 Best Overall
A 2024 paper on Connections describes the game as drawing on linguistic knowledge and sometimes lateral or abstract reasoning, including less-common interpretations and longer phrases. That is a useful way to think about puzzles where a direct category seems close but not quite right.
Spoiler warning: full categories and answers
The complete solution for Sunday, March 23, 2025, is below.
Rank #2
Yellow — CAPTIVATE
ABSORB, ENTRANCE, GRAB, RIVET
Each can mean to hold someone’s attention or interest. Here, ENTRANCE is used as a verb.
Green — THINGS WITH WINGS
AIRPLANE, FAIRY, FLY, HOSPITAL
The group combines an aircraft, a fairy, an insect, and a hospital wing.
The Tool Desk
Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Blue — WORDS THAT MODIFY “WATCH”
POCKET, SMART, STOP, WRIST
These form pocket watch, smartwatch, stopwatch, and wristwatch.
Purple — WORDS REPEATED IN “MISS MARY MACK”
BACK, BLACK, BUTTONS, MACK
These words recur in the clapping-game rhyme “Miss Mary Mack.”
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.About the puzzle
TechRadar identifies this as game #651, dated Sunday, March 23, 2025. Its answer guide lists the board and solution above. Connections gives players up to four incorrect guesses; a wrong selection can also help expose a near-match by indicating that three of the four chosen words belong together. The game is available through the NYT Games site on desktop and mobile.
Quick Recap
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