NYT Connections #646 was released on Tuesday, March 18, 2025. The 16-word grid looks deceptively approachable: several entries can fit more than one group, while the German-word category and two animal-plural categories create most of the traps.
Below are progressively stronger hints, followed by the complete category breakdown and answers. Stop before the answer section if you are still playing.
Hints for Connections #646
Try these clues without revealing the four groups immediately:
| Color | Hint |
|---|---|
| 🟨 Yellow | Words meaning supreme, exceptional or the one and only. |
| 🟩 Green | These are German words, although some are also familiar in English. |
| 🟦 Blue | Plural animal names that do not change from their singular form. |
| 🟪 Purple | Plural words whose singular forms are substantially different. |
Extra help before the answers
- Yellow: Three of the words can describe something unusual or outstanding. The fourth means “one of a kind.”
- Green: One word is associated with anxiety, one is an article, one means children, and one relates to sausage.
- Blue: Think of animals whose singular and plural spellings are identical.
- Purple: Convert each word back to singular English. The results include a small cube, a parasite, a rodent and an animal commonly associated with cattle.
The 16 words in Connections #646
The grid for Tuesday’s puzzle contained:
KINDER, DICE, SINGULAR, DIE, OXEN, SPECIAL, DEER, LICE, UNIQUE, SHEEP, SQUID, ANGST, MICE, WURST, REMARKABLE, SHRIMP
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The difficult part is that SINGULAR, DIE and several animal-related words can pull you toward the wrong group. “Die” is especially risky: in English it can be the singular of “dice,” but here it belongs with the German words.
NYT Connections #646 answers
🟨 Yellow: Exceptional
REMARKABLE, SINGULAR, SPECIAL, UNIQUE
All four words can describe something that stands out from the ordinary. “Singular” works in the sense of being unusual or one of a kind, while “unique” is the most direct fit. “Remarkable” and “special” complete the category.
🟩 Green: German words
ANGST, DIE, KINDER, WURST
These words come from German:
- Angst — fear or anxiety.
- Die — the feminine singular form of “the.”
- Kinder — children.
- Wurst — sausage.
Several have entered English usage, particularly angst and wurst, which makes this set easier to miss if you first treat every word as an English clue.
🟦 Blue: Plural animal names identical to their singular forms
DEER, SHEEP, SHRIMP, SQUID
Each word can refer to one animal or more than one:
| Word | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| DEER | one deer | two deer |
| SHEEP | one sheep | two sheep |
| SHRIMP | one shrimp | two shrimp |
| SQUID | one squid | two squid |
Depending on style and context, “shrimps” or “squids” may occasionally appear, but the standard puzzle relationship is that the plural can remain unchanged.
🟪 Purple: Plural words whose singular forms are very different
DICE, LICE, MICE, OXEN
These are irregular plurals:
| Plural | Singular |
|---|---|
| DICE | DIE |
| LICE | LOUSE |
| MICE | MOUSE |
| OXEN | OX |
This group is the puzzle’s most technical connection. The words do not share a subject matter; their link is grammatical. DIE appears in the grid as a decoy because it is the singular of DICE, but it must instead be reserved for the German-word group.
Why this puzzle was tricky
Connections #646 uses multiple kinds of ambiguity at once. The yellow words overlap in meaning, but that is a normal “clean” category. The harder misdirection comes from the animal words: DEER, SHEEP, SHRIMP and SQUID form one group because their plural can stay unchanged, while LICE, MICE and OXEN look like they could simply be another animal set.
The fourth purple answer, DICE, only becomes clear after recognizing that its singular form is DIE. That creates a deliberate separation between a word in the grid and the category it helps define. Meanwhile, KINDER and WURST may look like unusual English entries, but they point toward the German set alongside ANGST and DIE.
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How to approach a grid like this
- Mark obvious synonym groups, but do not submit as soon as you find four related words.
- Check whether one of those words has a more precise grammatical or linguistic connection.
- Separate unchanged plurals such as deer and sheep from irregular plurals such as mice and oxen.
- Look for a word that can act as a decoy in two categories. Here, DIE links conceptually to DICE but belongs with the German words.
- Submit the least ambiguous group first. Once it disappears, the remaining categories become easier to distinguish.
FAQ
What are the answers to NYT Connections #646?
The groups are Exceptional: REMARKABLE, SINGULAR, SPECIAL, UNIQUE; German words: ANGST, DIE, KINDER, WURST; unchanged animal plurals: DEER, SHEEP, SHRIMP, SQUID; and irregular plurals: DICE, LICE, MICE, OXEN.
When was Connections #646 released?
NYT Connections #646 was released on Tuesday, March 18, 2025.
Why are DICE, LICE, MICE and OXEN grouped together?
They are plural words with notably different singular forms: die, louse, mouse and ox.
What makes DEER, SHEEP, SHRIMP and SQUID a group?
Each can be used as both singular and plural without changing its spelling: one deer and two deer, for example.
The Bottom Line
The solution to NYT Connections #646 rests on four different types of links: exceptional synonyms, German vocabulary, unchanged animal plurals and irregular plurals. The key distinction is between DEER, SHEEP, SHRIMP, SQUID, whose singular and plural forms can match, and DICE, LICE, MICE, OXEN, whose singular forms change considerably.
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