NYT Connections hints and answers, Friday Jan 2

This guide covers yesterday's game! Looking for today's? Check out the Connections hint for Thursday 14th May!

Need a hint for today's Connections on Friday, January 2nd? Don't underestimate how much personal expertise can boost your score. While luck plays a role in whether today's topics align with your interests, this guide is here to step up if Lady Luck stays away.

Select from the tips below and give the puzzle another try.

In this article:

• How to play Connections
• Connections hint for Friday 2nd January
• What are today's Connections groups?
• What are today's Connections answers?

Here are the 16 words for today:

How to play Connections

Connections is a popular daily puzzle game by the New York Times (creators of Wordle). The goal is to sort 16 words into four groups, where each group shares a common theme.

For example, "Hook," "Nana," "Peter," and "Wendy" are all characters from Peter Pan. Alternatively, "Action," "Ballpark," "Go," and "Stick" often precede the word "Figure."

Your task is to identify these connecting themes. Watch out for deceptive red herrings designed to mislead you! To win, find all four groups without making more than three mistakes. On your fourth error, the game ends and reveals the answers.

Each group is color-coded by difficulty: Yellow (Easiest), Green (Easy), Blue (Medium), and Purple (Hardest).

Click here to play today's Connections puzzle!

Connections hint for Friday 2nd January

Here are your hints for today:

• Yellow: Using a pen and paper.
• Green: "That's their thing."
• Blue: You can use this to make comparisons.
• Purple: They're missing something.
• Extra hint 1: Every theme contains a three-letter word.
• Extra hint 2: "Number" and "metric" are in different groups.

If you need more help, reveal one word from each group below:

• Yellow: Record
• Green: Number
• Blue: Metric
• Purple: Hive

Spoiler warning! Today's Connections groups are revealed just below!

What are today's Connections groups?

If you need a larger clue, here are the four correct themes linking each set of words:

Here are the Connections groups for today:

• Yellow: Write
• Green: Shtick
• Blue: Benchmark
• Purple: Vegetables Minus Starting Letter

Now that you know the themes, try to solve it! If not, check below for the full solution.

Spoiler warning! Today's Connections answer lies ahead!

What is today's Connections answer?

Here is the answer to today's Connections puzzle on Friday, January 2nd:

• Yellow: Write (Jot, Log, Note, Record)
• Green: Shtick (Bit, Gag, Number, Routine)
• Blue: Benchmark (Bar, Example, Metric, Standard)
• Purple: Vegetables Minus Starting Letter (Ale, Eek, Hive, Quash)

I've bounced back from yesterday's disastrous "first Connections of the year" thanks to this lovely, straightforward puzzle. I spotted "record" and "note" immediately, finishing that theme in under a minute.

It took me a moment to separate "standard" and "routine," but identifying "shtick" (I initially thought "habit") and "benchmark" was quick. The only real hurdle was placing "number" into the green group.

Although I didn't need the purple category, "veggies" came to mind while solving the green theme. "Quash" is a word that just begs further investigation.

Congratulations if you solved today's Connections correctly! If not, don't worry—a new puzzle drops every midnight at 12:00 AM, so give it another shot tomorrow!