The Connections #925 Guide: Full Mashable Hints And All Categories For December 22, 2025
Are you hitting a wall with the latest daily word puzzle? The New York Times Connections puzzle for today, Monday, December 22, 2025 (Puzzle #925), presents a classic mix of misdirection and clever wordplay, making the challenge of grouping 16 words into four distinct categories particularly tricky. Many players are turning to guides like Mashable for those crucial, vague hints that nudge you toward the solution without fully spoiling the fun.
This comprehensive guide provides the specific Mashable-style clues for today’s puzzle, along with a deep dive into the four categories and the full word groupings, ensuring you can preserve your winning streak. The difficulty today lies in multiple words that seem to fit more than one group, especially the Purple category, which requires lateral thinking. Use these hints to break through the mental block and conquer Connections #925.
The Mashable-Style Hints for Connections Puzzle #925
Mashable’s daily puzzle guides are known for offering subtle, category-based hints that reveal the nature of the group without giving away the words themselves. This approach helps you focus your thinking and avoid common red herrings. For the December 22, 2025, puzzle, here are the clues you need to succeed, ranked from the easiest (Yellow) to the hardest (Purple).
Yellow Category Hint: The Flow of Things
This group relates to a sudden, often overwhelming, arrival or movement. Think about words used to describe a quick, uncontrolled onset or a large quantity of something arriving all at once. If you’re feeling a sudden urge or a burst of activity, this category might be related to that feeling or concept.
Green Category Hint: What Comes Next
The common thread here is sequential order. All four words are synonyms for something that happens after a previous event, or a time that follows the present. Look for words that imply continuation, delay, or a subsequent action. This group is often one of the first to be solved, as the words share a very direct, obvious meaning.
Blue Category Hint: Pocket Essentials
This category has a very specific, tangible theme. Each word, when paired with the word "CARD," forms a common, everyday object or item. Think about what you might carry in your wallet or what you might send to someone for a special occasion. This group is a classic example of a "____ CARD" category, a frequent feature in Connections puzzles.
Purple Category Hint: The Missing Link (A Letter Game)
The Purple category is the notorious "trick" group, and today’s is a brilliant piece of wordplay. Each of the four words in this group is missing a single letter at the end. When that missing letter is added, the new word is the name of a common color. This requires you to cycle through the alphabet for each word until you find a common color name. This is the hardest group and should be saved for last.
The Full Word List and Potential Misdirections
Before diving into the answers, it is helpful to review the full 16-word grid for Connections #925. Identifying the red herring words that could fit into multiple categories is a key strategy for success. The board for December 22, 2025, includes:
- RUSH
- PIN
- PLAYING
- LATER
- GREETING
- CYA
- RASH
- COMING
- WAVE
- BRO
- WHITE
- BUSINESS
- CREDIT
- AFTER
- NEXT
- FOLLOWING
The main misdirection today involves words like WAVE (which could relate to water or a greeting) and RASH (which could be a skin condition or a flow). The key is to find the four words that *most* clearly share a single, specific definition. The Purple group words (PIN, CYA, BRO, WHITE) are designed to look completely unrelated, forcing you to solve the other three groups first.
Category Reveals: The Full Connections #925 Solution
If you've exhausted your attempts or simply need to confirm your final guesses, here is the complete solution for the NYT Connections puzzle #925. Use this section to understand the logic and improve your strategy for future puzzles.
Yellow Group (Easiest): INFLUX
Category: Sudden Arrival or Flow
- RASH
- RUSH
- COMING
- WAVE
The Logic: All four words can be used to describe a sudden, often unexpected, arrival or movement. For example, a "rush" of water, a "wave" of emotion, a "coming" of age, or a "rash" of burglaries. This was the most straightforward group, focused on the concept of an onset or surge.
Green Group: SUBSEQUENT
Category: Following or Next in Time
- LATER
- AFTER
- NEXT
- FOLLOWING
The Logic: These are all direct synonyms for something that occurs at a future time or in sequence. If something happens "later," "after," "next," or "following," it is subsequent to a previous event. Identifying this group early is a great way to clear the board and focus on the harder challenges.
Blue Group: KINDS OF CARDS
Category: Words that Precede "Card"
- BUSINESS
- CREDIT
- GREETING
- PLAYING
The Logic: This is a classic word association category. Each word, when combined with "Card," forms a common compound noun: Business Card, Credit Card, Greeting Card, and Playing Card. This type of category tests your ability to see words not just by their dictionary definition but by their common usage in phrases.
Purple Group (Hardest): COLORS MINUS LAST LETTER
Category: Words that Become a Color When a Letter is Added
- PIN (K)
- CYA (N)
- BRO (WN)
- WHI (TE)
The Logic: This is the puzzle’s trickiest element. The words themselves seem random, but when you add the correct letter(s) to the end, they transform into a color name: PIN + K = PINK; CYA + N = CYAN; BRO + WN = BROWN; WHI + TE = WHITE. This level of abstraction is what separates the easy puzzles from the truly challenging ones.
Expert Tips for Solving Future Connections Puzzles
To consistently solve Connections, you need to develop a systematic approach that goes beyond simple dictionary definitions. Here are a few expert strategies to boost your topical authority in word games:
- Embrace the Red Herring: The puzzle designer intentionally includes words that fit into multiple categories (like RUSH or WAVE today). If you find a group of four words that all seem to fit, but a fifth word also fits, you’ve likely found a red herring. The true group will only have four words that fit perfectly.
- Prioritize the Obvious: Always look for the most straightforward synonyms first. The Green group (SUBSEQUENT) is a perfect example of a low-hanging fruit category. Solving the easiest groups first reduces the word pool and makes the remaining connections clearer.
- The "____ Word" Strategy: Many Blue and Purple categories rely on a hidden word that connects all four. Test common connecting words like "CARD," "GAME," "OUT," or "UP" with the remaining words. Today’s "KINDS OF CARDS" is a prime example of this frequent puzzle mechanism.
- Save the Abstract for Last: The Purple category is almost always the most abstract, relying on homophones, spelling tricks, or letter manipulations (like COLORS MINUS LAST LETTER). Do not waste your limited guesses on the Purple group until you have successfully solved the other three.
- Use the Shuffle Button: The shuffle feature is not just for aesthetics. Moving the words around can break up visual clusters and force your brain to see new connections that were hidden by proximity.
By combining Mashable’s subtle hints with a solid solving strategy, you can maintain your streak and enjoy the satisfying feeling of mastering the daily Connections challenge. Good luck with tomorrow’s puzzle!
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