NYT Connections #602 is the archived puzzle from Sunday, February 2, 2025. The answers are DEJECTED, BIRDS THAT ARE VERBS, TV COMEDY FAMILIES, and WORDS AFTER “K.” Hints come first below, followed by a clearly marked spoiler section.
NYT Connections #602 is the archived puzzle from Sunday, February 2, 2025. Its four groups are DEJECTED, BIRDS THAT ARE VERBS, TV COMEDY FAMILIES, and WORDS AFTER “K”.
Hints for Connections #602
Try these clues before revealing the answers. They are arranged from the gentlest hint to the strongest.
- Yellow: Feeling low or gloomy.
- Green: These can be birds, but they can also describe actions.
- Blue: Families from television comedies.
- Purple: Put the letter “K” before each answer.
The 16 words are: BLUE, DOWN, HANGDOG, SORRY, DUCK, GROUSE, HAWK, SWALLOW, GRIFFIN, MUNSTER, PARTRIDGE, PICKLES, MART, POP, STREET, and SWISS.
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Spoiler warning: Connections #602 answers
The complete groups and explanations are below. Stop here if you are still solving.
Yellow: DEJECTED
BLUE · DOWN · HANGDOG · SORRY
All four words can describe someone who is sad, gloomy, or generally low in spirits. Hangdog is the less familiar entry: it describes a dejected, ashamed, or downcast appearance. “Blue,” “down,” and “sorry” are more immediately recognizable, which makes them useful anchors for this group.
Green: BIRDS THAT ARE VERBS
DUCK · GROUSE · HAWK · SWALLOW
Each word names a bird and also functions as a verb:
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- Duck: to lower the head or body, or evade something.
- Grouse: to complain.
- Hawk: to sell or promote goods.
- Swallow: to ingest, or figuratively to accept something difficult.
The likely trap is to select these simply as bird names. The intended connection is the part-of-speech switch: every entry can also describe an action.
Blue: TV COMEDY FAMILIES
GRIFFIN · MUNSTER · PARTRIDGE · PICKLES
These are family surnames from different television comedies:
- The Griffins from Family Guy
- The Munsters from The Munsters
- The Partridges from The Partridge Family
- The Pickles family from Rugrats
They do not all come from one program. The connection becomes clearer when the words are treated as family names rather than isolated nouns.
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Purple: WORDS AFTER “K”
MART · POP · STREET · SWISS
Place the letter K before each word to make a familiar name or phrase:
- K-mart
- K-pop
- K Street
- K-Swiss
This is the most abstract group because the four entries do not have an obvious shared meaning until the extra letter is supplied. It is also the group most likely to remain after the more semantic categories have been removed.
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BLUE may initially look like a color, but “feeling blue” places it with DOWN, HANGDOG, and SORRY. Meanwhile, DUCK, GROUSE, HAWK, and SWALLOW look like a straightforward bird category until their verb meanings reveal the intended twist.
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- FIND THAT ONE SOLUTION…OR MORE THAN ONE?: This board game is confirmed that all of arrangements have AT LEAST one possible solution for each, and maybe even more! Some are very easy, and some are much harder. Find a solution first, then challenge yourself to find another one… and… another one?
A practical solving route is to identify the bird-and-verb group or the television-family group first. Once those eight words are removed, the emotional descriptors and the K-phrases are easier to separate. That is a strategy based on the word relationships in this grid, not an official ranking of the puzzle’s difficulty.
Complete answer list
| Color | Category | Words |
|---|---|---|
| Yellow | DEJECTED | BLUE, DOWN, HANGDOG, SORRY |
| Green | BIRDS THAT ARE VERBS | DUCK, GROUSE, HAWK, SWALLOW |
| Blue | TV COMEDY FAMILIES | GRIFFIN, MUNSTER, PARTRIDGE, PICKLES |
| Purple | WORDS AFTER “K” | MART, POP, STREET, SWISS |
Want more NYT-style puzzles?
If you enjoy Connections but want a screen-free puzzle session, Puzzle Mania!: Wordle, Connections, Spelling Bee, Minis and More! collects new spins on Connections alongside other New York Times Games formats and brain teasers. It is a separate puzzle book, not a reprint of Connections #602.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does “hangdog” mean in Connections #602?
“Hangdog” means dejected, ashamed, or downcast. In Connections #602, it belongs with BLUE, DOWN, and SORRY in the DEJECTED group.
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Why are MART, POP, STREET, and SWISS grouped together?
Add K before each entry: K-mart, K-pop, K Street, and K-Swiss.
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Which Connections #602 words are birds that are also verbs?
The four words are DUCK, GROUSE, HAWK, and SWALLOW. Each is both a bird name and a verb.
The Bottom Line
Connections #602, from February 2, 2025, groups its words as DEJECTED; BIRDS THAT ARE VERBS; TV COMEDY FAMILIES; and WORDS AFTER “K.”
Quick Recap
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