Today’s NYT Connections is a neat little mix of wordplay and imagery: one category is emotional/psychological annoyances, one is literal constellations, one is atomic shorthand, and the last is a fun “___ corn” wordplay set. Two groups are pictureable (constellations and the corn phrases), one lives in your head, and one rewards reading letters as chemical symbols.

Below you’ll find four clues for each category (try them before looking at answers), the final solutions, a short excerpt, and a quick solving tip.

NYT Connections Puzzle Overview: 20 October 2025

NYT Connections Hints: 20 October 2025

Category 1:
  • A tiny mythical creature — or something that irritates you repeatedly.
  • A psychological set of issues that troubles someone internally.
  • A slangy word for an inner torment or obsession.
  • A common phrase for a personal emotional block or fixation.
Category 2:
  • A very large, famous bear in the night sky.
  • Half-horse, half-human — a constellation named for a mythic creature.
  • The hunter who wears a belt of three bright stars.
  • A small constellation named for a stringed instrument.
Category 3:
  • A two-letter symbol that stands for arsenic.
  • A two-letter symbol for a light, springy metal used in aircraft.
  • A single-letter symbol for a halogen used in tinctures and cameras.
  • A single-letter symbol for the element soldiers call “potassium.”
Category 4:
  • Add the blank and you’ve got the critter that lives in trees.
  • Prefix that makes a zodiac sign when attached to “corn.”
  • A snack you blow up or pop before you eat it.
  • A mythical one-horned creature when you fill the blank.

NYT Connections Answers: 20 October 2025

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

Final Thought

This one’s a tidy solve: lock in the constellation group first if you spot any of those sky names (they’re vivid and visual). The “___corn” set clicks as soon as you read any of the blanks aloud. The afflictions require a little semantic thinking (mental/psych words), and the periodic-symbols group is literal — just read the letters as element symbols. Happy solving — relish that little “aha” when everything snaps into place.