Today's NYT Connections hints and answers — Saturday, February 3, #237

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Looking for today's Connections answers? The Connections answers on February 3 for puzzle #237 are marginally more difficult than yesterday's, with the Connections Companion rating this puzzle's difficulty at 2.6 out of 5.

Every day, we update this article with Connections hints and tips to help you find all 4 of today's answers. And if the hints aren't enough, you'll find all 4 answers below, with the category titles and the correlating words. Plus, we're including a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #236, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.

Spoilers lie ahead for Connections #237. 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

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.

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

🟨 Yellow: Found on the streets of Wall Street or Manhattan
🟩 Green: Agricultural architecture
🟦 Blue: Woof!
🟪 Purple: Fading hues

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.

Alright then, here's a larger hint: Today's puzzle might bring a famous George Orwell satire to mind. And on the subject of homes for animals, you might also want to think of animals in the home. A man's best friend, perhaps...

Today's Connections answers

So, what are today's Connections answers for game #237?

Drumroll, please...

🟨 Commercial organization: Agency, company, enterprise, firm
🟩 Farm fixtures: Coop, pen, stable, sty
🟦 Classic dog names: Fluffy, rex, rover, spot
🟪 Colors minus their first letters: Ink, lack, old, range

The luck of the draw saw Pen and Ink thrust together in the top left corner of my grid today, and also Range and Rover in the bottom left. And yet, this being Connections, I was immediately wary of getting too excited about any potential themes on writing instruments or cars.

Instead, I saw Firm, Company, Agency, and figured I was onto something. Types of businesses? I added Coop (as in co-operative) only to find I was one away. I figured I best stick with capitalism and replaced Coop with Enterprise for a completed yellow category: commercial organization.

From the city to the countryside next, as the aptly-colored green category followed when I figured Coop can also be used to house chickens, putting it alongside Stable, Sty, and, yep, Pen, as fixtures on a farm.

After a brief pause, a tactical shuffle came in handy as it pitched Rex and Rover together, bringing to mind more of our friends in the animal kingdom. Fluffy and Spot completed what sounded like an attendance sheet at a doggy daycare.

As is often the case, I was left with the four remaining words from the purple category, which this time were Ink, Lack, Old, and Range. It took a while, but eventually, a kaleidoscopic spark pervaded my monochrome thinking, and I realised they were all colors minus their first letters!

Yesterday's Connections answers

Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Connections answers for game #236, which had a difficulty rating of 2.2 out of 5, according to the Connections Companion.

Friday's Connections puzzle dangled the promise of a lazy weekend at the beach with all this talk of Breaks, Leave, Holidays, and Sandals.

Yet there were so many holes in this idea - literally! Hole, Holy, Holi, Holly, Wholly, and Holey! This huge cluster of cavities had to be a big clue (or a trap?). Recalling my time celebrating Holi in Singapore, I noticed that only four of these words were homophonic partygoers. And just like that, the blue category was a confetti-filled success and this Connections game was blown wide open.

With the soundalikes sorted, it was time to clock out with Break, Holiday, Leave, and Recess. It was like submitting a leave request and getting an instant approval.

🟨 Time off: Break, holiday, leave, recess
🟩 Features of a belt: Buckle, hole, loop, strap
🟦 Homophones: Holey, Holi, holi, wholly
🟪 ____ wood: Dog, drift, holly, sandal

Then there was the fashion-forward quartet of Strap, Buckle, Hole, and Loop. Despite Sandal feeling a snug fit there, too, I tried them on for size, thinking maybe they were a group that belonged to a shoe. I was right with the category, but they were all features of a belt, not a shoe. Maybe that's why my vintage pilgrim shoes have been receiving so many stares in the supermarket. The green category clicked into place like a well-fastened buckle.

Left with an assortment of Holly, Drift, Dog, and Sandal, I scratched my head for a moment. Then it dawned on me – these were all types of wood! Driftwood, Hollywood, Dogwood, and Sandalwood. The purple category was crafted smoothly like a beautiful coffee table.

Striding out of this puzzle with a perfect game under my belt, it was time to put my feet up—perhaps in a pair of sandals—and bask in the glory of today's mental workout.

Alexis is a freelance writer and podcast producer with a Master's degree in Journalism. His love for creative technology stems from the day he was gifted his first ever digital voice recorder (a beloved Olympus WS 110), which brought with it the wonderful realisation that he'd never again have to rely on his iffy shorthand. Alexis has over 16 years of experience crafting articles for industry-leading print and online technology publications, including Tom's Guide, Creative Bloq, and TechRadar. When he's not writing, Alexis combines his love for travel and sports, interviewing adventurers and athletes all over the world.