Looking for the most recent NYT Connections puzzle answers? CNET publishes daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

In Connections, you look at a grid of 16 words and pick four words that have a connection to each other. You do this four times until all 16 words in the puzzle are grouped. The tough part is that Times associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu chooses words that could fit in multiple groups. The obvious guess — hey! Those are four animals! — is almost always going to be wrong. I’ve compiled my favorite tips for Connections if you need a boost.

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 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.

Review hints and full solutions for today's word grouping puzzle.

Puzzle Clues

Here are four clues for the groupings in today’s puzzle, ordered from the standard yellow group to the more challenging purple group.

Yellow group hint: Scope is one example.

Green group hint: Looking sharp.

Blue group hint: Think about trees.

Purple group hint: Associated with being cold.

Solutions

Yellow group category: Breath fresheners.

Green group category: Laundry treatments for dress shirts.

Blue group category: Natural features of wood.

Purple group category: Expressions featuring the word cool.

Word Lists

The theme centers on breath fresheners.

The four matching words are gum, mint, mouthwash, and spray.

Green Category Solutions

The theme centers on dress shirt laundry treatments.

The four matching words are fold, press, starch, and wash.

Blue Category Solutions

The theme centers on features of wood.

The four matching words are burl, grain, knots, and rings.

Purple Category Solutions

The theme centers on expressions containing cool.

The four matching words are beans, cat, cucumber, and customer.