Crack Today’s Connections With Smart Hints and Clues for December 20

If today's NYT Connections is chewing up your morning coffee time, same. Here's a clean set of nudges for the December 20, 2025 edition (puzzle #923) — and the full solutions if you want to lock in the streak.

Quick refresher

Connections is The New York Times' daily word grid: 16 words, four secret categories, your job is to sort them into four groups of four. You get four tries to nail every group. When you're close, the game sometimes flashes a helpful little message:

"one away..."

Today's grid (Dec 20)

The 16 words are: CLASH, CAN, BUCKET, TIN, CURE, PRESS, BOTTOM, FOLD, SALT, WASH, DAMNED, FALL, MUSIC, DRUM, DRY, LOBSTER.

Hints, if you want them:

Yellow is all about things you use to hold stuff. Green leans into hotel-style service — think laundry. Blue is a very specific music nerd lane: British bands formed in the 1970s that start with "The." Purple is a set of words that finish the phrase "rock ____."

Answers (spoilers ahead)

• Yellow — Containers: BUCKET, CAN, DRUM, TIN
• Green — Laundry services: DRY, FOLD, PRESS, WASH
• Blue — British bands formed in the 1970s, with "The": CLASH, CURE, DAMNED, FALL
• Purple — Rock _____: BOTTOM, LOBSTER, MUSIC, SALT

Kind of love how specific that bands category is — broad enough to feel doable, narrow enough to mess with your head.

If you want more brain candy after this one, the NYT Games lineup also includes the daily Crossword and Wordle, and everything lives on the NYT Games app too.