Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle is rather tricky. The purple category is especially mystifying. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Lookalikes.

Green group hint: Part of something.

Blue group hint: National symbol.

Purple group hint: Squish down.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Doppelgänger.

Green group: Portion.

Blue group: Common flag symbols.

Purple group: Pressed using a press.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is doppelgänger. The four answers are clone, double, mirror and ringer.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is portion. The four answers are concern, interest, share and stake.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is common flag symbols. The four answers are crescent, cross, star and stripe.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is pressed using a press. The four answers are cider, garlic, trousers and wine.

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Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is easier than some have been. Once you learn the topic, the words come pretty easily. But if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story. 

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Open wide.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Brace face.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints, but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

• MIST, SOIL, RICE, LICE, RUDE, LUDE, BRUSH, TOOT, RIDE, RIDER

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

• DRILL, FLOSS, MIRROR, FLUORIDE, TOOTHBRUSH

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is DENTISTSOFFICE. To find it, start with the D that’s five letters down on the far-left row, and wind up and then across.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.