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NYT Connections #623 was published on Sunday, February 23, 2025. The solution groups are RUB TOGETHER, WAYS TO PRESERVE FOOD, BREAKFAST CONDIMENTS, and PROVERBIAL THINGS THAT ARE SPILLED.
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Spoiler warning: The hints below begin gently, but the complete groups and all 16 answers are revealed farther down the page.
Hints for Connections #623
Try these category clues before looking at the answers. They are arranged from the least revealing to the most revealing.
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Yellow hint
Think about actions that involve rubbing surfaces or objects against one another.
Green hint
These are methods used to make food last longer.
Blue hint
These are commonly added to breakfast foods such as toast, eggs, pancakes, waffles, or French toast.
Purple hint
Each word can follow “spill” in a familiar idiom or expression—some involving secrets, gossip, or regret.
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Connections #623 answers
Full solution:
| Color | Category | Answers |
|---|---|---|
| Yellow | Rub together | GNASH, GRATE, GRIND, SCRAPE |
| Green | Ways to preserve food | CAN, FERMENT, FREEZE, PICKLE |
| Blue | Breakfast condiments | BUTTER, HOT SAUCE, JAM, SYRUP |
| Purple | Proverbial things that are spilled | BEANS, GUTS, MILK, TEA |
Yellow: RUB TOGETHER
GNASH, GRATE, GRIND, SCRAPE
These verbs describe rubbing, crushing, or abrading. To gnash is commonly to grind the teeth. To grate means to rub something against a rough surface, while to grind involves crushing or rubbing material into smaller particles. To scrape is to rub a surface with something rough or sharp.
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Green: WAYS TO PRESERVE FOOD
CAN, FERMENT, FREEZE, PICKLE
All four words describe ways of extending food’s shelf life. Food can be sealed in containers, fermented through controlled microbial activity, frozen at low temperatures, or pickled in vinegar or brine.
If this category sparks an interest beyond the puzzle, a pressure canning cookbook is a more relevant follow-up than a generic kitchen-product recommendation. It is entirely optional and is not needed to solve Connections.
Blue: BREAKFAST CONDIMENTS
BUTTER, HOT SAUCE, JAM, SYRUP
Butter and jam are familiar toast toppings. Syrup is associated with pancakes, waffles, and French toast, while hot sauce is often added to eggs and other savory breakfast dishes.
Purple: PROVERBIAL THINGS THAT ARE SPILLED
BEANS, GUTS, MILK, TEA
This is the most idiomatic group:
- Spill the beans means to reveal a secret.
- Spill your guts means to disclose personal information or speak openly.
- Don’t cry over spilled milk means there is little value in regretting something that cannot be changed.
- Spill the tea means to share gossip or inside information.
How difficult was Connections #623?
The most dependable starting points were likely the concrete food-related groups: CAN, FERMENT, FREEZE, PICKLE and BUTTER, HOT SAUCE, JAM, SYRUP. Once those are removed, the purple idiom group becomes easier to recognize.
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The yellow group is more deceptive because all four words can relate to friction or rough handling, but they do so in slightly different ways. The puzzle’s category mix creates several plausible partial connections, especially around GRATE, GRIND, and SCRAPE.
There is no reliable official difficulty rating, solve rate, or independently verified solving time available here, so this guide does not assign the puzzle a precise difficulty score.
Why the date matters
This page is for Connections #623 from February 23, 2025. Search results can also surface a different puzzle dated February 23, 2026, but that later puzzle has a different number. When the date and search results conflict, #623 is the decisive identifier for this answer set.
All 16 words in Connections #623
For reference, the complete board was:
BEANS, BUTTER, CAN, FERMENT, FREEZE, GNASH, GRATE, GRIND, GUTS, HOT SAUCE, JAM, MILK, PICKLE, SCRAPE, SYRUP, TEA.
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What was the answer to Connections #623?
NYT Connections #623 was the puzzle published on February 23, 2025. Its categories were RUB TOGETHER, WAYS TO PRESERVE FOOD, BREAKFAST CONDIMENTS, and PROVERBIAL THINGS THAT ARE SPILLED.
Best Value
- Find hundreds of words in an easy to read format - Some words you'll spot easily, but you'll have to search hard for others.
- A wide range of puzzle topics, including movies, actors, sports, cars, and more!
- Variations on the standard word search puzzles are included for extra challenge.
- Answer key in the back of the book.
- Spiral bound, 192 pages.
What was the purple category in Connections #623?
The purple group was BEANS, GUTS, MILK, and TEA. They pair with “spill” in expressions including “spill the beans,” “spill your guts,” “don’t cry over spilled milk,” and “spill the tea.”
Is this the February 23, 2025 or February 23, 2026 Connections puzzle?
The puzzle number is the best identifier. This guide covers #623 from February 23, 2025, not a separate Connections puzzle that may appear in search results for February 23, 2026.
The Bottom Line
Connections #623, from February 23, 2025, groups its words into rubbing actions, food-preservation methods, breakfast condiments, and expressions involving things that are “spilled.”
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