Today’s NYT Connections puzzle (#927) groups its words into money slang, chewing actions, fish, and musical vocalizations disguised with an extra final letter. Spoiler-free hints come first, followed by the complete answers for Wednesday, December 24, 2025.
NYT Connections #927 was published on Wednesday, December 24, 2025. The gentlest clues point to money, chewing, fish, and musical vocalizations. The final category is the trickiest: each entry hides a musical action with one extra letter added at the end.
Need the solution immediately? The four groups are slang for money, masticate, fish, and musical vocalizations plus one letter. The full answers and explanations appear below the spoiler warning.
Connections #927 word grid
The 16 words in the Wednesday, December 24 puzzle were:
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SINGE · MUNCH · PAPER · POLLOCK · BACON · CHAMP · CHAR · WHISTLER · BITE · TANG · RAPT · CHEESE · HUMP · BREAD · SOLE · CHEW
The puzzle identification and complete grid are also reproduced by The Word Finder’s December 24 Connections archive.
Spoiler-free hints for Wednesday, December 24
Work through these from top to bottom. Stop as soon as one gives you the breakthrough you need.
Yellow hint: slang for money
Think of informal words for cash. One of them is associated with earning a living, while another can mean printed money.
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Green hint: what you do when you chew food
These are all verbs describing the act of biting, chewing, or working food in your mouth. One is less common than the others and means to chew noisily or vigorously.
Blue hint: aquatic animals
Look for four fish. Two are familiar food fish, one is a cold-water fish related to trout and salmon, and one is a colorful marine reef fish.
Purple hint: musical vocalizations with an extra letter
The four entries do not directly name the musical actions. Remove the final letter from each word and you will find words meaning to vocalize or perform music in different ways.
Spoilers: the Connections answers
Warning: the complete groups and the reasoning behind them are below.
Yellow: SLANG FOR MONEY
- BACON
- BREAD
- CHEESE
- PAPER
All four can be used informally to mean money. “Bring home the bacon” refers to earning money; bread and cheese are familiar slang terms for cash; and paper can refer to physical money, especially bills.
Green: MASTICATE
- BITE
- CHAMP
- CHEW
- MUNCH
Bite, chew, and munch all describe eating or using the teeth on food. Champ is the trap: as a verb, it means to chew noisily or vigorously. That less familiar definition makes it easier to overlook among the more obvious food-related words.
Blue: FISH
- CHAR
- POLLOCK
- SOLE
- TANG
These are all fish names. Pollock and sole are commonly encountered as food fish. A char is a cold-water fish in the salmon and trout family, while a tang is a marine reef fish. The category explanations are consistent with the published solution at Word Cheats.
Purple: MUSICAL VOCALIZATIONS PLUS ONE LETTER
- HUMP = HUM + P
- RAPT = RAP + T
- SINGE = SING + E
- WHISTLER = WHISTLE + R
This is the puzzle’s most deceptive group because the visible entries are not the intended musical actions. Remove the final letter from each:
| Grid entry | Remove the last letter | Underlying musical word |
|---|---|---|
| HUMP | HUM + P | HUM |
| RAPT | RAP + T | RAP |
| SINGE | SING + E | SING |
| WHISTLER | WHISTLE + R | WHISTLE |
The category is therefore a wordplay transformation rather than a straightforward group of synonyms: each answer is a musical vocalization followed by one extra letter. Yahoo’s archived solution describes the same construction.
Why this puzzle was difficult
The grid contains several tempting overlaps. CHEESE and BREAD can both suggest food, but they belong with BACON and PAPER as money slang. CHAR can also be an ordinary verb, and TANG may evoke a flavor, but both are fish.
The purple group creates the biggest false trail. SINGE looks like an action involving heat, and WHISTLER looks like a person rather than a verb. Their endings are deliberate distractions. Once you notice that HUMP contains HUM and RAPT contains RAP, the remaining two entries become much easier to test.
Complete answer recap
| Color | Category | Words |
|---|---|---|
| Yellow | Slang for money | BACON, BREAD, CHEESE, PAPER |
| Green | Masticate | BITE, CHAMP, CHEW, MUNCH |
| Blue | Fish | CHAR, POLLOCK, SOLE, TANG |
| Purple | Musical vocalizations plus one letter | HUMP, RAPT, SINGE, WHISTLER |
Want more word puzzles?
If this kind of clue-solving is your preferred holiday break activity, the publisher maintains a New York Times Games puzzle book series with additional word and number puzzles. For readers looking for ongoing digital play, The New York Times also documents a separate NYT Games subscription; availability and terms can vary by location and may change.
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A note about the puzzle number
Some archived search results have shown a different reference number, including #969. The date-specific sources and multiple puzzle archives identify the Wednesday, December 24, 2025 game as Connections #927, which is the numbering used here.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the NYT Connections answers for December 24, 2025?
The four categories are slang for money, masticate, fish, and musical vocalizations plus one letter.
What is the purple category in Connections #927?
The purple group is HUMP, RAPT, SINGE, and WHISTLER. Removing the last letter produces HUM, RAP, SING, and WHISTLE.
What number is the December 24, 2025 Connections puzzle?
The puzzle is #927, published on Wednesday, December 24, 2025. A few archived search results show a conflicting number, but date-specific and majority archive evidence support #927.
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The Bottom Line
The December 24, 2025 Connections answers are BACON, BREAD, CHEESE, PAPER for money slang; BITE, CHAMP, CHEW, MUNCH for masticate; CHAR, POLLOCK, SOLE, TANG for fish; and HUMP, RAPT, SINGE, WHISTLER for musical words with one extra final letter.
Quick Recap
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