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NYT Connections Hints Today (#986)—Answers for Saturday, February 21

The weekend is here, and hopefully you’re ready to get started by cracking into today’s NYT Connections challenge and acing it without a single missed step. Fortunately, I’m here with the NYT Connections hints and answers you need to accomplish that task in a matter of minutes!

Read on to secure the NYT Connections solutions and explanations you need today.

How to Play NYT Connections

In June 2023, NYT Connections emerged as yet another game in the ever-growing lineup of the New York Times titles. This title soared immediately, and it’s easy to see why. As a free-to-play, accessible New York Times game, NYT Connections is available worldwide and can be played on desktop devices or in a mobile app.

But how do you play NYT Connections?

The NYT team will provide you with a grid of 16 words once a day. The only task left up to you is to sort those words into four groups of four by finding their commonalities. Every NYT Connections puzzle has just one solution, and some words can have double meanings, so it can sometimes be tricky to figure out the answers.

It’s also important to stress that the words are color-coded: yellow, blue, green, and purple. That’s in order of difficulty, from least to most.

What’s critical here is that you get four guesses every day, and if you use those, your NYT Connections answers for today will be out of reach, as it’ll be game over.

Today’s NYT Connections Hints (February 21)

Here are the words from today’s NYT Connections puzzle:

  • LATE
  • GREAT
  • PAST
  • LIFE
  • PRESENT
  • MINION
  • INFINITIVE
  • PERFECT
  • SOLID
  • DODGERS
  • EXCUSE
  • BACKGROUND
  • ABSENT
  • AUDITS
  • HISTORY
  • PHEW

And here are the hints I can offer for today’s NYT Connections:

  • Yellow – Look back and not forward
  • Green – What you might have as a result during role call
  • Blue Good results
  • Purple – Car brands, plus a little extra

Here’s the final warning before we get to the NYT Connections answers for today, February 21:

Are you sure you want to scroll further?

Very well!

NYT Connections Answers Explained for Today, February 21 (#986)

If you want to jump straight to the answers for today’s NYT Connections puzzle, I’ve got you covered:

  • Yellow – BACKGROUND, HISTORY, LIFE, PAST
  • Green – ABSENT, LATE, PRESENT, EXCUSED
  • Blue – GREAT, PERFECT, PHEW, SOLID
  • Purple – AUDITS, DODGERS, INFINITIVE, MINION

When Does NYT Connections Reset?

That’s today’s puzzle, but if you want the next one, the game resets daily at midnight local time (that’s your local time). You’ll have 24 hours to complete the puzzle when midnight ticks over in your timezone.

How did you do? Did you get a perfect run? Let me know what your streak looks like on the Insider Gaming Discord server

Written by
Grant Taylor-Hill
Senior Editor and Esports Lead

Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.

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