NYT Connections today hints and answers — Sunday, February 9 (#609)

NYTimes Connections
(Image credit: Future)

Looking for clues for today's Connections answers? The Connections answers on February 9 for puzzle #609 see a huge drop in difficulty compared to yesterday's puzzle, with the Connections Companion rating this puzzle's difficulty at 2.5 out of 5.

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.

Plus, we're including a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #608, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.

Spoilers lie ahead for Connections #609. Only read on if you want to know today's Connections answers.

Alternatively, visit our how to play NYT Connections guide for tips on how to solve the puzzle without our help.

Today's Connections answer — hints to help you solve it

New York Times Connections puzzle 609 on February 9, 2025

(Image credit: New York Times Connections)

Unlike our guide to today's Wordle answer, where we recommend the best Wordle start words as your strategy, 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.

Today's Connections words are: Super, Bowl, Party, Person, Jumbo, Tron, Alien, Monster, Dune, Spoon, Giant, Character, Individual, Pot, Avatar, Ladle

If you need hints to solve the groupings, then here are the themes of each, based on the order of difficulty:

  • 🟨 Yellow: Massive
  • 🟩 Green: Used when serving soup
  • 🟦 Blue: Somebody
  • 🟪 Purple: Sci-fi franchises

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.

Here's a larger hint: Today's clues are more literal than you think, filled with blockbusters, larger-than-life synonyms, and absolutely zero to do with this weekend's big game.

Today's Connections answers

So, what are today's Connections answers for game #609?

Drumroll, please...

  • 🟨 Massive: Giant, Jumbo, Monster, Super
  • 🟩 Used when serving soup: Bowl, Ladle, Pot, Spoon
  • 🟦 Somebody: Character, Individual, Party, Person
  • 🟪 Sci-fi franchises: Alien, Avatar, Dune, Tron

The clues Super and Bowl were such glaring red herrings that I didn't even bother looking for football clues at first, instead immediately jumping into hunting for other silverware and dishes that could be tied to Bowl. I scooped up Pot, Ladle, and Spoon shortly thereafter.

Next came the easiest category with some larger-than-life synonyms like Giant, Jumbo, Monster, and Super.

I thought Dune and Tron might be more tricky clues to throw me off (surely it couldn't be as simple as sci-fi franchises right?) but Occam's Razor struck again for today's purple category with Alien, Avatar, Dune and Tron.

That left Individual, Party, Character and Person to round out the blue category.

Yesterday's Connections answers

  • 🟨 Info on a baseball card: Bio, player, stat, team
  • 🟩 Scrunch, as fabric: Bunch, gather, pucker, ruffle
  • 🟦 Time adverbs: Later, now, soon, then
  • 🟪 ____ Food: Fast, finger, junk, soul

Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Connections answers for game #608, which had a difficulty rating of 3.8 out of 5, according to the Connections Companion.

Yesterday's was a smidge easier than the day before according to the ratings but I struggled with this one.

I first got the yellow category of baseball card info with bio, player, stat and team, which I thought would be more of a green.

Then I snagged later, now, soon and then which ended up being the blue category. What? I did struggle here trying to figure out where pucker was supposed to go. It was not clicking.

Staring at ruffle I was thinking chips which made fast food click. Junk, soul and finger followed.

Finally, got the green category at the end with bunch, gather, pucker and ruffle. Pucker refers to sewing with too much tension. This creates bunches along the seam of the fabric, or so the internet tells me

Alyse Stanley
News Editor

Alyse Stanley is a news editor at Tom’s Guide overseeing weekend coverage and writing about the latest in tech, gaming, and entertainment.Prior to joining Tom’s Guide, Alyse worked as an editor for the Washington Post’s sunsetted video game section, Launcher. She previously led Gizmodo’s weekend news desk and has written game reviews and features for outlets like Polygon, Unwinnable, and Rock, Paper, Shotgun. She’s a big fan of horror movies, cartoons, and roller skating.

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