Today’s NYT Connections puzzle is a clean one: four everyday categories that reward quick pattern spotting and a tiny bit of lateral thinking. 

This puzzle is comfortable and clever — four tidy categories that reward both picture-thinking and a little word awareness. Two groups are deeply literal (rocks and news features), one is pure imagination, and the last is a nostalgic gaming nod. Spot one obvious member, build momentum, and the rest falls into place. You’re faster than you think — click with confidence.

NYT Connections Puzzle: 9 October 2025 Overview

NYT Connections Hints: 9 October 2025

Category 1:
  • A flinty stone famous for making sparks.
  • A sedimentary rock used in buildings and caves.
  • A polished stone often used for countertops and statuary.
  • A dense, fine-grained roofing material often split into tiles.
Category 2:
  • An adjective meaning fanciful or not strictly real.
  • The genre that lives in make-believe worlds and dragons.
  • A small invented thing — a figment of someone’s imagination.
  • A noun meaning something created in the mind; not literal.
Category 3:
  • The short line beneath a photo explaining what you’re looking at.
  • The geographic/time stamp at the top of a story.
  • The journalistic opening paragraph (old-school spelling).
  • The image itself — journalism’s visual partner.
Category 4:
  • The big ape who first kidnapped a princess in an arcade classic.
  • The speedy blue title character known for rings and loops.
  • The iconic job title of the hero who stomps turtles and saves kingdoms.
  • The often-rescued royal in many platformers.

NYT Connections Answers: 9 October 2025

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

Final strategy tip

This puzzle mixes tactile categories (rocks, article parts) with imagination (fantasy words) and a retro pop-culture set.

Lock in the concrete visual groups first — the rocks and news features jump out once you picture them. The fantasy cluster clicks when you think “made up,” and the gaming set is a quick nostalgia win if you hum a few theme songs.