Today's puzzle is tricky with modes and bands.
Find our guide to New York Times Connections answers and hints for July 10 below.
Spoilers lie ahead for Connections #1,125. Only read on if you want to know today's Connections answers.
Plus, we're including a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #1,124, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.
Alternatively, visit our how to play NYT Connections guide for tips on how to solve the puzzle without our help.
What is Connections
Solving Connections relies on identifying connecting categories among 16 words. Each category's difficulty level is represented by a color; yellow is the easiest grouping, and purple is the most challenging. Once you've made 4 mistakes in your guesses, the answers will be revealed, so hints can be helpful.
Every day, we update this article with Connections hints and tips to help you find all 4 of today's answers so you can keep your Connections streak going. And if the clues aren't enough, you'll find all four answers below, with the category titles and the correlating words.
Today's Connections answer — hints to help you solve it
Today's Connection Grid and Words
- Outkast
- Depeche Mode
- Fresh-Baked
- Ball Gown
- Do Not Disturb
- A La Mode
- Strike A Pose
- Airplane Mode
- Erasure
- Safe Mode
- Decadent
- New Order
- Hotspot
- Pet Shop Boys
- Molten
- Location Services
We have the Connections categories below, but here's a hint without the actual titles. Try this out:
- 🟨 Yellow: Phone icons
- 🟩 Green: Sweet treat
- 🟦 Blue: Synthetic
- 🟪 Purple: Ump
Today's Connections Group Hints
If you need hints to solve the groupings, then here are the themes of each, based on the order of difficulty:
- 🟨 Yellow: Smartphone settings
- 🟩 Green: Dessert menu descriptors
- 🟦 Blue: '80s synth-pop bands
- 🟪 Purple: Starting with baseball calls
These hints should get you at least some of the way towards finding today's Connections answers. If not, then you can read on for bigger clues; or, if you just want to know the answer, then scroll down further.
Today's Connections answers
The Connections answers on July 10 for puzzle #1,125 are much harder than yesterday's puzzle, with the Connections Companion rating this puzzle's difficulty at 2.8 out of 5.
- 🟨 Smartphone settings: Airplane mode, do not disturb, hotspot, location services
- 🟩 Dessert menu descriptors: Decadent, fresh-baked, molten, à la mode
- 🟦 '80s synth-pop bands: Depeche Mode, Erasure, New Order, Pet Shop Boys
- 🟪 Starting with baseball calls: Ball gown, outkast, safe mode, strike a pose
I took two strikes early, making some curiousity plays. First, I saw all the modes, so I threw those together just to see, strike one. Then I messed up on the bands mostly because I was distracted by Outkast and forgot about New Order.
Swapping New Order helped solve the synth-pop with Depeche Mode, Erasure, and Pet Shop Boys. It helps to have grown up with a mom who came up in the 80s.
I was eating an ice cream cone while solving this, so I was in a sweet mood, which is why I pursued molten, fresh-baked, decadent, and a la mode next.
Next, I was trying to put Outkast together and ended up baseball with ball gown, safe mode and strike a pose.
This left the smartphone settings of airplane mode, do not disturb, hotspot and location services.
Yesterday's Connections answers
- 🟨 Non-alcoholic designators: NA, spirit-free, virgin, zero-proof
- 🟩 Music publications: Billboard, pitchfork, rolling stone, spin
- 🟦 Kinds of rugs: Persian, prayer, shag, throw
- 🟪 Pontiac models: Firebird, G6, grand prix, trans am
Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Connections answers for game #1,124, which had a difficulty rating of 1.5 out of 5.
I saw most of the connections right away, but my issue was which color they were associated with. I guessed wrong from the start.
So I went with the magazines, thinking it would be blue with Billboard, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, and Spin.
Which left the rugs as the other set I was looking for with persian, prayer, shag, and throw.
I don't know why I never considered the Pontiacs earlier on. We've got Firebird, G6, Grand Prix, and Trans Am.
Which left the alcohol free listings of NA, spirit-free, virgin, and zero-proof.
