HIGHLIGHTS
- In today’s NYT Connections, “Ken” refers to Kenya, incorporating the opening letters of the African country’s name and is part of the purple group.
- “Spur” is used to identify an NBA player, referring to a player from the basketball team San Antonio Spurs and is placed in the blue group.
- “Short Period of Time”, “Do Wrong”, “NBA Player”, and “Starts of African Countries” are the four categories of today’s NYT Connections.
The New York Times offers a diverse selection of puzzle games, including Connections, Wordle, and Strands.
Players have found words like Uber Rating and All Out difficult to group in yesterday’s connections.
The April 12 NYT Connections puzzle presented a challenge, as grouping words like Ken and Spur proved difficult.
Solutions For Today’s NYT Connections (April 12)
In Connections, players group words into four categories: Yellow, Green, Blue, and Purple, with each category increasing in difficulty.

Identifying the first group was easy, as it contained synonymous words all referring to a short period of time.
Selecting Bit, Flash, Jiff, and Sec forms the yellow group of the puzzle, aptly titled “Short Period of Time.”

Moving forward, I recognized actions associated with making mistakes or behaving inappropriately in the puzzle and instinctively grouped them together.
This created the green group “Do Wrong,” which included Sin, Fall, Err, and Stray.

Half of the puzzle is now complete, with eight words correctly grouped into two distinct categories.
Meaning Of “Spur” In NYT Connections
Generally, Spur can have several meanings, such as a motivator, a pointed device for horse riding, or a geographical feature.
In this case, “Spur” refers to an NBA player from the San Antonio Spurs, a team in the Southwest Division.

NBA players are often referred to by their team name, typically using the singular form of the team’s name.
As a result, Spur, Net, Buck, and Sun make up the blue group, labeled “NBA Player,” in today’s puzzle.
“Ken” Meaning In Today’s NYT Connections
Most players, myself included, initially mistook “Ken” as a shortened name or a reference to knowledge.
While this isn’t wrong, Connections includes words with multiple meanings to mislead players into grouping them incorrectly.
In this case, Ken refers to Kenya, incorporating the opening letters of the African country’s name as part of the theme.

Consequently, the final group in today’s puzzle is formed under the title “Starts of African Countries“, including Ken, Bots, Came, and Tan.
These words reference different African countries: Ken for Kenya, Bots for Botswana, Came for Cameroon, and Tan for Tanzania.
Here is today’s final list of words and themes for NYT Connections, organized by their difficulty levels.
- Short Period of Time (Yellow): Bit, Flash, Jiff, Sec
- Do Wrong (Green): Sin, Fall, Err, Stray
- NBA Player (Blue): Spur, Net, Buck, Sun
- Starts of African Countries (Purple): Ken, Bots, Came, Tan

