The New York Times’ daily word game Connections returned on Friday, December 5, with Puzzle #907 — a particularly challenging mix of misleading themes, board-game references and clever linguistic twists. Many players took to social media to admit they were stumped by the 16 scrambled words, which proved harder than usual to sort into their correct categories.

What Is NYT Connections?

Connections is a daily puzzle that asks players to arrange 16 words into four groups of four based on a shared theme. While the rules are simple, overlapping word associations often make the game deceptively difficult. Players get four incorrect guesses before the puzzle ends, and each group is colour-coded by difficulty:
Yellow (easy), Green (easy), Blue (medium), Purple (hard).

Much like Wordle, the game has built a massive online community that shares hints, strategies and scores every day.

Hints for December 5 (Puzzle #907)

The official clues included:

• Yellow: “Not simple.”
• Green: Describe the current circumstances.
• Blue: Think board games.
• Purple: Add a type of speech.

Additional hints suggested that each category included one word starting with “S,” and that “Situation” and “Operation” belonged to different groups.

Today’s One-Word Teasers

• Yellow: Delicate
• Green: Status
• Blue: Operation
• Purple: Pillow

NYT Connections Answers for December 5

Yellow — Tricky
Complex, Delicate, Sticky, Tough

Green — State of Affairs
Deal, Situation, Status, Story

Blue — Classic Board Games
Mastermind, Mouse Trap, Operation, Sorry

Purple — “___ Talk”
Baby, Pillow, Small, Sweet

Puzzle Breakdown

Friday’s puzzle challenged players with its slippery adjectives in the Yellow group and its clever “___ talk” phrases in Purple. The Blue category — featuring classics like Mouse Trap and Operation — was easier to spot and helped many solvers gain momentum. The Green group focused on terms describing situations or conditions.

Puzzle #907 ultimately delivered a smart, balanced challenge — the kind of wordplay fans have come to expect from Connections heading into the weekend.