Leave it to The New York Times to have an addicting yet educational word game to crack! Since “Connections” is one of the publication’s most popular games, the answer for today, January 23, 2025, was a tough one to solve.

Luckily, we’ve got the hints and the final answer to today’s puzzle.

How to Play ‘Connections’

“Connections” begins with a set of 16 words in a grid, and players have to separate the words into four related groups. The difficulty of each category is marked in the colors yellow, green, blue and purple. Yellow is the easier one, while purple is considered the most difficult.

After a player selects each group’s four words, they click “submit,” which should become the category’s color if it’s correct.

‘Connections’ January 23 Hints

Here are our hints for Thursday’s “Connections” answer:

• These words all have something in common related to exceeding something else.
• These words are all common items you might bring to a picnic.
• All of these items are associated with Indiana Jones’s iconic look.
• These are tricky, but the key is to identify words that rhyme with the names of U.S. Presidents. Focus on sound-alike matches rather than direct associations.

“Connections” editor Wyna Liu is familiar with the frustration that players have when they can’t solve a game. While speaking with Slate in July 2024, Liu described the process behind developing each game.

“The process is I have a notebook where I keep down category ideas. And when I sit down to make boards, I’ll take one of those ideas, I’ll take those words, and then I’ll start spinning off of them,” Liu said. “And then, the boards will be built from that, and sometimes it goes in surprising directions. I feel like that’s sort of one of the most joyful things about making games. I don’t know what the categories are gonna be. I start with like a seed. And then I’m just like, ‘Oh, what does this word do?,’ and then maybe like a dozen categories of possibilities and then you kind of see if any of those words are playing off each other, and the brain builds from that.”

What Is the ‘Connections’ January 23 Answer?

The answer to today’s “Connections” game is:

1. Outdo: BETTER, SURPASS, ECLIPSE, TOP
2. Picnic Accessories: BASKET, COOLER, BLANKET, UTENSILS
3.  Parts of an Indiana Jones Costume: BOMBER, SATCHEL, FEDORA, WHIP
4. Rhymes of U.S. President Names: PAGAN, SMARTER, VIXEN, WIDEN