The December 19, 2025 edition of NYT Connections (puzzle #922) mixes straightforward vocab groupings with a purple row built entirely on sound-alike wordplay. If you’re trying to protect a streak, you can use the light hints first, then check the exact groupings once you’re ready.
Today’s Connections word list (December 19, #922)
These are the 16 words you start with today:
- EDUCATION
- PEER
- COOK
- DATA
- DOC
- LABOR
- BIRTH
- DETAILS
- WORF
- GO OUT
- ENERGY
- COMMERCE
- INFORMATION
- LEFTOVERS
- INTELLIGENCE
- DELIVERY
Category hints for today’s Connections
If you want a nudge without seeing the exact sets yet, these clues track the four color tiers, from easiest to hardest.
- Yellow (easy): Think about things you might collect in a report, briefing, or case file.
- Green (medium): All four relate to getting dinner on the table, with different ways to source a meal.
- Blue (harder): These are all names of US federal government departments.
- Purple (trickiest): Each word sounds like somewhere you could park a ship.
If you can already see a full set from those hints, try to lock that in-game before you look at the solved groupings below.
NYT Connections answers for December 19, 2025 (#922)
Here are the confirmed categories and the four-word groups for today.
Yellow group – Findings
This set pulls together different ways to describe collected knowledge or evidence. Each term fits comfortably in a briefing or investigative context.
- DATA
- DETAILS
- INFORMATION
- INTELLIGENCE
It’s easy to get distracted by the bureaucratic feel of these words and start pairing them with departments in the blue group, so it helps to separate “types of knowledge” from “institutions.”
Green group – Dinner Options
All four green words describe ways you might handle dinner, not the food itself.
- COOK – Make the meal yourself at home.
- DELIVERY – Have food brought to you.
- GO OUT – Eat at a restaurant.
- LEFTOVERS – Reheat what’s still in the fridge.
A common trap here is to see COOK and LABOR and think about “work,” but LABOR belongs in a more formal, governmental category later on.
Blue group – U.S. Cabinet Departments
The blue group is built from official US Cabinet-level departments, which makes it much more concrete once you spot the pattern.
- COMMERCE
- EDUCATION
- ENERGY
- LABOR
Words like EDUCATION and ENERGY can also appear in everyday contexts, so it helps to ask which of the 16 entries you could plausibly see on a federal org chart. That question filters the set down to these four.
Purple group – Homophones of places to park a ship
The final group is classic purple-row mischief: each entry is a homophone for something nautical.
- BIRTH – Sounds like “berth,” a ship’s assigned spot.
- DOC – Sounds like “dock.”
- PEER – Sounds like “pier.”
- WORF – Sounds like “wharf.”
None of the actual spellings are maritime, which is why this category usually falls last. The key is to read them out loud; once you hear “dock” in DOC or “pier” in PEER, the whole set snaps into place.
How to approach a board like #922
Today’s layout is rated around the low–mid range for difficulty. It leans on two reliable Connections tactics: semantic clustering and sound-based wordplay.
Start with the most literal group. For many players, the yellow or green rows will fall first. “DATA / DETAILS / INFORMATION / INTELLIGENCE” clearly feel like they belong together, and “COOK / DELIVERY / GO OUT / LEFTOVERS” follow once you frame them as decisions about dinner.
Use category conflicts to your advantage. When you notice that EDUCATION works both as an abstract concept and as a government department, that tension points you toward the presence of a “US Cabinet Departments” grouping. Sorting out ambiguous words this way is often safer than guessing blindly.
Save obvious outliers for purple. WORF is a strong purple candidate from the start: it’s capitalized as a name and doesn’t line up neatly with the other themes. When a word looks like an outlier, consider whether it might be there to anchor a sound-based or pun-based category.
Read the remaining words aloud. Once the straightforward categories are locked, the final four usually require a shift from meaning to sound or structure. Saying BIRTH, DOC, PEER, and WORF out loud is the easiest way to surface their hidden “berth / dock / pier / wharf” connection.
If today’s purple row cost you a streak, it’s worth remembering that these sound-based groups are designed to ambush even cautious players. Treat them as pattern recognition practice rather than a failure, and tomorrow’s board will feel more familiar.
