NYT Connections puzzle #487 was published on Thursday, October 10, 2024. The grid contains 16 words, and every entry is three letters long—a structure that makes several words look as though they belong in more than one group.
Below, you can work through progressively stronger hints before revealing the category names and complete answers. If you are looking for the full solution, scroll to the answer table—but watch for the HIP red herring and the unusual spellings in the Do-Re-Mi group.
Today’s 16 Connections words
Use this list to confirm that you have the October 10, 2024 puzzle rather than another October 10 edition. The original grid was:
HIP · TEA · BIG · BAD
EYE · FLY · SEW · SAW
ILL · FAR · ELF · LEG
HER · RAD · ARM · DOE
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All 16 entries are three letters, so ordinary meanings, film titles, slang, body parts and lyric-based wordplay are competing for your attention at the same time.
Hints, from lightest to strongest
Spoiler warning: The first tier avoids naming the categories. The next hint gives one representative word from each group. The category names and answers appear afterward.
First hint tier
- Yellow: Think anatomy—four words are parts of the human body.
- Green: Think approving slang associated with the 1980s.
- Blue: Think of four short entries you could see as titles on a movie listing.
- Purple: Think of a famous musical number that teaches the notes of the scale.
Stronger hints
One representative word from each group is:
- Yellow: ARM
- Green: BAD
- Blue: BIG
- Purple: DOE
If you want to keep solving, stop here. The category labels and full answers are next.
Connections #487 category answers
Spoilers below: These are the intended groups for October 10, 2024.
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| Color | Category | Answers | How they fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yellow | Body parts | ARM, EYE, HIP, LEG | Common parts of the human body, used for seeing, moving or physical contact. |
| Green | Cool, in ’80s slang | BAD, FLY, ILL, RAD | Slang terms that can mean cool, excellent, fashionable or otherwise impressive. |
| Blue | Movies | BIG, ELF, HER, SAW | Each is a one-word movie title, and each title has three letters. |
| Purple | Words in “Do-Re-Mi” | DOE, FAR, SEW, TEA | English words used in the mnemonic lyric sequence from the song “Do-Re-Mi” in The Sound of Music. |
The complete answer set is independently listed in contemporary puzzle coverage, including TechRadar’s October 10, 2024 report and News9Live’s puzzle #487 coverage.
Why HIP is the puzzle’s biggest trap
HIP has two very plausible homes. It is obviously a body part, but “hip” can also mean fashionable, modern or cool. That makes it tempting to place HIP with BAD, FLY, ILL and RAD.
That apparent connection is intentional. The green group is complete with BAD, FLY, ILL and RAD, leaving HIP for the yellow body-parts group. In other words, the correct rule is not simply “words that can mean cool”; it is the more specific set of positive slang terms associated with the puzzle’s ’80s framing.
The slang category should not be read as an etymology claim. These words did not all originate in the 1980s: FLY had been used to mean fashionable earlier, RAD developed from “radical” in the 1970s, and ILL took on a positive slang meaning later in the twentieth century. The category describes their cultural association and usage, not a shared invention date. Dictionary.com’s discussion of slang for “cool” provides useful context.
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Why BIG, ELF, HER and SAW are movies
The blue group is simply Movies: Big, Elf, Her and Saw are all one-word film titles.
The words are disguised by their ordinary uses. BIG looks like an adjective, ELF suggests a fantasy creature, HER looks like a pronoun, and SAW can be read as either a verb or a cutting tool. Their shared three-letter length makes the title connection harder to spot, but once one or two are recognized as films, the group becomes much stronger.
For clarity, the category is Movies. It is not “music publications” or another alternate label that appears in some inconsistent syndicated versions of the puzzle coverage.
The purple trick: lyric words, not bare note names
DOE, FAR, SEW and TEA are not the standard spellings of the solfège syllables. They are the English words used in the mnemonic portion of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Do-Re-Mi” from The Sound of Music.
The spelling distinction is the point of the purple group:
- DOE, rather than do
- FAR, rather than fa
- SEW, rather than so or sol
- TEA, rather than ti or si
The words refer to the English mnemonic explanations attached to the musical sequence—for example, a doe is a female deer, far describes distance, sew relates to stitching and tea is the drink. The official Rodgers & Hammerstein lyrics page confirms these word relationships. This is why the exact category wording, Words in “Do-Re-Mi”, is more accurate than simply calling the group “solfège.”
A practical solve path for #487
- Start with the body parts. ARM, EYE and LEG are relatively easy to see. HIP is the fourth, but keep it in reserve if you are still considering a slang group.
- Resolve the slang overlap. BAD, FLY, ILL and RAD can all be positive terms meaning cool or excellent in the intended cultural context. Once those four are together, HIP belongs with the anatomy words.
- Look for film titles. BIG, ELF, HER and SAW share the unusual property of being familiar one-word movie titles made of three letters.
- Use elimination and the musical reference. The four remaining words—DOE, FAR, SEW and TEA—form the “Do-Re-Mi” group. Their unusual spellings are confirmation that the connection is lyric-based.
There is no required solving order. Another effective approach is to identify DOE, FAR, SEW and TEA first because the song reference is distinctive, or to spot the movie titles before tackling the more culturally dependent ’80s slang group.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why this board feels more ambiguous than it looks
The puzzle’s all-three-letter format creates several deliberate surface readings:
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- HIP is both anatomy and slang for fashionable or cool.
- BAD ordinarily means negative, but can be approving slang.
- FLY can suggest an insect or moving through the air before its slang meaning appears.
- ILL normally means sick or unwell, not excellent.
- TEA looks like an everyday drink rather than a song-based clue.
- SAW can be a verb or a tool as well as a movie title.
- HER reads naturally as a pronoun.
- BIG looks like an ordinary adjective.
- ELF suggests a creature from folklore or fantasy.
The strongest Connections groups are usually the ones that leave no attractive alternate word behind. Here, the body-parts and slang groups only become secure after the HIP overlap is resolved, while the movie and lyric groups depend on recognizing titles and references rather than literal definitions.
How Connections works
In the standard Connections format, you receive 16 words and must divide them into four groups of four. Select four entries and press Submit. A correct group is removed and assigned its color; an incorrect selection uses one of the game’s four allowed mistakes. You can also shuffle the board when its layout is hiding a pattern.
The colors traditionally move from easier to harder: yellow, green, blue and purple. Connections is released daily at midnight in the player’s local time zone. The game-format guide explains the selection, mistake and shuffle mechanics, while the New York Times Help Center provides current information about playing Connections and accessing game features.
Can you replay Connections #487?
Yes, historical replay depends on your current New York Times Games access. As of August 10, 2026, the NYT Help Center says the Connections archive reaches back to June 12, 2023, and archive access is available to All Access and Games subscribers. The current daily puzzle remains available separately.
Search or navigate to the Connections archive using the date October 10, 2024 or puzzle number #487. The year matters: October 10, 2025 was a different puzzle, numbered #852, as documented in Forbes’ coverage of that later puzzle. Historical listings also identify October 10, 2024 as #487 in the Connections archive.
The Bottom Line
Bottom line: Connections #487 uses ARM, EYE, HIP, LEG for body parts; BAD, FLY, ILL, RAD for cool ’80s slang; BIG, ELF, HER, SAW for movies; and DOE, FAR, SEW, TEA for words in “Do-Re-Mi.” The key traps are HIP’s double meaning and the purple group’s lyric spellings.
Quick Recap
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