Puzzle overview and difficulty

Connections #842 is the September 30, 2025 puzzle. As usual, the grid contains 16 words that sort into four groups of four. Colors reflect difficulty: yellow is the simplest, then green, blue, and purple as the trickiest. Today’s tester rating is 3/5 in difficulty. The puzzle refreshes daily at midnight in your time zone.

Category hints (no spoilers)

  • Yellow: Describes unnatural or affected mannerisms.
  • Green: Words drawn from a well-known tongue twister about a woodchuck.
  • Blue: Cartoon birds from classic franchises.
  • Purple: Each word ends with a sound that matches a number—say them aloud.

Full answers for Connections #842 (by color)

Color Category Words What ties them together
Yellow Unnatural, As Mannerisms Awkward, Stiff, Stilted, Wooden All describe affected delivery or demeanor.
Green Words in a Famous Tongue Twister Chuck, Could, Wood, Woodchuck Core terms from the “How much wood would a woodchuck…” line.
Blue Cartoon Birds Foghorn, Scrooge, Woodstock, Woody Foghorn Leghorn (Looney Tunes), Scrooge McDuck (Disney), Woodstock (Peanuts), Woody Woodpecker.
Purple Ending With Number Homophones Classics, Create, Guthrie, Therefore Final sounds match numbers: “six,” “eight,” “three,” “four.”

Notes on the number-sound set

  • Classics → ends with a “six” sound.
  • Create → ends with an “eight/ate” sound.
  • Guthrie → ends with a “three/’thrie’” sound.
  • Therefore → ends with a “four/for” sound.

Tip: read the endings aloud and focus on sound, not spelling.

Common overlaps and misdirects in today’s grid

  • “Wood” shows up across multiple places: the tongue twister set (Wood, Woodchuck, Chuck, Could) and the bird set via names like Woodstock and Woody. Keep “wood” terms in mind but separate the tongue-twister words from character names.
  • “Wooden” belongs with unnatural mannerisms, not with the tongue twister—despite the shared letters.
  • Some bird entries appear without their full names: Foghorn (Leghorn), Scrooge (McDuck). They are still the same characters.
  • “Woody” is the woodpecker here, not a general adjective.

That’s the full breakdown for #842. If you’re tracking streaks, note how the puzzle leans on sound-alikes and franchise knowledge; scanning for repeated motifs (like “wood”) and then confirming category intent helps prevent misgroups.