NYT Connections Hints Today, January 28, 2026: Answers And Clues For Game #962

NYT Connections For Today, January 28, 2026: NYT Connections is a daily word puzzle from the New York Times where you sort 16 words into four groups of four. Each group shares a common theme. You can make up to four wrong guesses before the game ends. If you are playing this game today get the full word list, hints, clues, answers (at last), along with some tips to help you crack it:

Today's NYT Connections For January 28, 2026, Word List

Here are the 16 words you need to group in today’s Connections puzzle (#962):

• RIB

• MOTOR

• MOCK

• TIRE

• PLATTER

• RAG

• NEEDLE

• GLOVES

• SHAM

• BUCKET

• PRETEND

• TIME

• SOAP

• DUMMY

• TONEARM

• ME

Today's NYT Connections Hints For January 28, 2026

• Yellow Group: Not real

• Green Group: Cleaning items

• Blue Group: Vinyl parts

• Purple Group: Complete Spare ___.

Today's NYT Connections Categories For January 28, 2026

• Yellow Group: Words that mean something is fake or pretend.

• Green Group: Everyday things you might use while cleaning.

• Blue Group: Parts found on a record player .

• Purple Group: Words that complete common phrases after ‘Spare’.

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Today's NYT Connections For January 28, 2026, Answers

Here are the correct groupings: 

• Yellow Group: DUMMY, SHAM, MOCK, PRETEND

• Green Group: BUCKET, SOAP, GLOVES, RAG

• Blue Group: PLATTER, TONEARM, MOTOR, NEEDLE

• Purple Group: ME, TIRE, RIB, TIME

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How To Crack NYT Connections Puzzle For January 28, 2026

Here are tips to help you solve puzzles like this:

• Start with the easiest groups first: Look for obvious links like items you clean with, or words that mean the same thing.

• Group words that share a simple idea: Words that sound like they belong together often do so always check the words.

• Watch for phrase helpers: Sometimes the link isn’t a meaning but what you can add before or after a word, like spare. 

• Use elimination: Once you’ve placed obvious groups, the remaining words usually reveal the tougher group.

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Image credit: New York Times and Freepik