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NYT Connections #938 for Sunday, January 4, 2026, groups the words into PAPER PUBLICATION, SPOOL, defensive-football actions, and words that turn into butt synonyms when their first letters are removed. Use the progressive hints below before scrolling to the complete answers.
Spoiler warning: The hints come first, but the complete solutions to NYT Connections #938 appear below the answer break.
Today’s Connections words: January 4, 2026
The 16 words in the Sunday, January 4, 2026, puzzle are:
TACKLE, EDITION, REEL, GRUMP, BLOCK, COIL, ISSUE, DREAR, CRANK, SACK, SCAN, WIND, COPY, BLITZ, ETAIL, PRINT
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This is puzzle #938. It is the January 4, 2026 edition—not the similarly dated 2025 puzzle.
Hints for Connections #938
Try these progressively more specific clues before looking at the answers.
Yellow hint
Think of something you might read or buy in paper form.
Green hint
Think of a cylindrical object that can have material wrapped around it.
Blue hint
Think about actions performed by a defensive football player.
Purple hint
Remove the first letter from each word. The new words relate to “butt.”
One-word hints
If you want a smaller nudge, these words point toward the four groups without naming them:
- Yellow: COPY
- Green: COIL
- Blue: BLITZ
- Purple: DREAR
NYT Connections #938 answers for January 4, 2026
Yellow: PAPER PUBLICATION
COPY, EDITION, ISSUE, PRINT
These words can all describe a paper publication or a physical example of one. A copy is an individual printed example, while an edition is a particular version or release. An issue is a published installment, such as an issue of a newspaper or magazine, and print can refer to printed material or the print version of a publication.
Green: SPOOL
COIL, CRANK, REEL, WIND
This group concerns the mechanics or action of winding material onto a spool or reel. A coil is wound material, a reel is a spool, and to wind is to wrap material around it. A crank can operate a winding mechanism.
The category is deliberately broad, which makes CRANK tempting to interpret as a person or personality type rather than as part of the winding-machine connection.
Blue: THINGS A DEFENSIVE FOOTBALL PLAYER DOES
BLITZ, BLOCK, SACK, TACKLE
A defensive football player can blitz the quarterback or backfield, block an opponent, sack the quarterback, or tackle a ball carrier.
BLOCK is the group’s likely red herring: blocking is often associated with offensive linemen, but defensive players also block in football situations. SACK may likewise distract solvers because of its other meanings, including a “sad sack,” but it belongs with the football actions.
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Purple: WORDS THAT BECOME BUTT SYNONYMS WHEN THEIR FIRST LETTER IS REMOVED
DREAR, ETAIL, GRUMP, SCAN
Remove the first letter from each entry:
| Grid entry | Remove the first letter | Result |
|---|---|---|
| DREAR | Remove D | REAR |
| ETAIL | Remove E | TAIL |
| GRUMP | Remove G | RUMP |
| SCAN | Remove S | CAN |
REAR, TAIL, RUMP, and CAN can all refer to a butt, although “can” is the most informal and indirect of the four. This is the puzzle’s word-manipulation category.
ETAIL is the least familiar entry. It refers to electronic retail or e-commerce, but its main role here is to become TAIL after its first letter is removed. GRUMP may initially suggest a bad-tempered person; in this group, it becomes RUMP.
How to solve this puzzle
The cleanest route is to secure the two most literal groups first:
- Spot COPY, EDITION, ISSUE, PRINT as terms connected with a paper publication.
- Recognize BLITZ, BLOCK, SACK, TACKLE as football actions.
- With eight words remaining, connect COIL, CRANK, REEL, WIND to a spool or winding mechanism.
- Use the leftovers—DREAR, ETAIL, GRUMP, SCAN—as a word-transformation group. Remove their first letters to reveal REAR, TAIL, RUMP, CAN.
The key lesson from #938 is to test both meanings and spelling transformations. Several entries are designed to pull you toward a wrong category: GRUMP sounds like a personality description, CRANK can describe a person, and SACK has several non-football meanings. The unusual-looking ETAIL becomes more useful once you examine the word’s first letter.
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Want more Connections puzzles?
The publisher has announced an upcoming New York Times Connections puzzle book by The New York Times Games and Wyna Liu. The publisher describes it as the first book-form collection of Connections puzzles, with a lay-flat format, and lists an October 27, 2026 publication date. Availability, price, stock, and any retail listing should be checked again closer to publication; there is no basis here to claim that the book includes puzzle #938.
For digital play and archived Connections activity, New York Times account requirements may apply. The newspaper’s help materials also identify Connections Companion as a support and community destination.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the answers to NYT Connections #938?
The four groups are PAPER PUBLICATION: COPY, EDITION, ISSUE, PRINT; SPOOL: COIL, CRANK, REEL, WIND; THINGS A DEFENSIVE FOOTBALL PLAYER DOES: BLITZ, BLOCK, SACK, TACKLE; and words that become butt synonyms when their first letter is removed: DREAR, ETAIL, GRUMP, SCAN.
What is the purple category in Connections #938?
Remove the first letter from each word: DREAR becomes REAR, ETAIL becomes TAIL, GRUMP becomes RUMP, and SCAN becomes CAN.
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The puzzle was published on Sunday, January 4, 2026, and is puzzle #938. It is not the January 4, 2025 edition.
The Bottom Line
Today’s groups are PAPER PUBLICATION, SPOOL, THINGS A DEFENSIVE FOOTBALL PLAYER DOES, and words that become butt synonyms when their first letter is removed.
Quick Recap
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