The New York Times Connections puzzle tasks players with sorting 16 seemingly unrelated words into four groups of four. Each group shares a hidden connection. Today’s grid blended sports terminology, descriptive slang, and a clever letter-based twist, making it a fun challenge to start the week. Below, you’ll find subtle hints to guide you—followed by the full answers once you’re ready.

NYT Connections Puzzle Overview: 15 December 2025

Today’s Connections grid rewarded those with a vocabulary for size and scale, as well as sports fans familiar with bracket structures. The deception lay in words like "Semi" and "Quarter," which could easily fit into multiple contexts (vehicles, money, or time), but found their true home in a competitive sequence. The purple category, as always, required a bit of lateral thinking—focusing less on the definition of the words and more on a single character they all relate to.

NYT Connections Hints: 15 December 2025

Category 1:
  • Slang for places that aren't exactly 5-star
  • Words used to describe a rundown establishment
  • Often used for cheap bars or messy rooms
  • "This place is a real..."
Category 2:
  • Adjectives describing immense size
  • Synonyms for huge or massive
  • One word is often associated with a "crop"
  • Another is the name of a famous ship
Category 3:
  • Stages in a sports competition
  • The road to the championship
  • Words often followed by "-Final"
  • From the start of the bracket to the end
Category 4:
  • Think of the third letter of the alphabet
  • Things represented by a single character
  • A temperature scale
  • A Roman numeral

NYT Connections Answers: 15 December 2025

Category 1:
Category 2:
Category 3:
Category 4:

Conclusion & Quick Strategy Tip

The 15 December 2025 Connections puzzle was a satisfying mix of synonyms and structural sets. The "Tournament Rounds" category (Qualifier, Quarter, Semi, Final) was the anchor today—once that clicked, the "Truck" red herring (Semi, Monster, Dump) fell apart, making the rest of the board much easier to manage. Quick strategy tip: Always check if a word like "Semi" is acting as a prefix or a standalone noun; identifying it as a prefix often unlocks the category immediately.