Here are some clues and answers for the January 25 NYT Connections Puzzle, #959.
Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, CNET editor-in-chief, journalist and pop culture junkie, is co-author of “Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the ’70s and ’80s,” as well as “The Totally Sweet ’90s.” She has been a journalist since 1989 and works for Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune and NBC News Digital. She is part of Generation X in terms of date of birth, words and deeds. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she’ll be first in line.
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Really, the New York Times? The newspaper, known for being rather quiet, actually places the words SUB and DOM next to each other in today’s NYT Connections puzzle. Of course, they didn’t mean what they could have said, and they didn’t end up in the same category, but still. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.
The Times has a login bot, like Wordle’s. Go there after playing to receive a numerical score and have the program analyze your answers. Players registered in the Times Games section can now track their progress, including the number of completed puzzles, win rate, number of times they achieved a perfect score, and their winning streak.
Learn more: Tips, Tricks and Strategies to Help You Win Every Time on NYT Connections
Tips for Today’s Connections Groups
Here are four clues for today’s Connections puzzle groupings, ordered from the easiest yellow group to the difficult (and sometimes weird) purple group.
Yellow group index: Like a double.
Green group index: Delete is another.
Blue group index: Like penne.
Purple group index: At the end of words.
Answers for Today’s Connections groups
Yellow group: Acts as a backup.
Green group: PC keyboard keys.
Blue group: Pasta shapes.
Purple group: Suffixes.
Learn more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words
What are today’s Connections answers?
The NYT Connections puzzle completed by January 25, 2026.
NYT/Screenshot by CNETYellow words in today’s Connections
The theme acts as a backup. The four answers are cover, fill in, sub and temp.
Green words in today’s Connections
The theme is PC keyboard keys. The four responses are alt, enter, menu and windows.
Blue words in today’s Connections
The theme is pasta shapes. The four answers are bow tie, ribbon, shell and tube.
Purple words in today’s Connections
The theme is suffixes. The four answers are ate, dom, hood and ship.
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