Today's NYT Connections hints and answers, Friday May 9

Need a hint for today's Connections on Friday, 9th May? Connections puzzles are extremely easy… Says nobody. If you're understandably struggling with the NYT theme puzzle from time to time, this guide will lend you a helping hand.

Hints, word reveals, theme spoilers, and tips; you'll find all that and more below.

In this guide:

• How to play Connections
• Connections hint for Friday 9th May
• What are today's Connections groups?
• What are today's Connections answers?

Here are the 16 Connections words for today:

How to play Connections

Connections is one of the most popular (and challenging) daily puzzle games published by the New York Times (owners of Wordle). The aim of Connections is to group the 16 words of the day into four groups, where each group of four words has a common theme.

For instance, the words "Hook", "Nana", "Peter", and "Wendy" are all Peter Pan characters. Or to take another example, "Action", "Ballpark", "Go", and "Stick" are all words which commonly come just before the word "Figure".

Your job is to figure out what these themes are that connect the various words together - but be wary, because a lot of the time there are deceptive red herring connections placed purely to throw you off! To win the game, you have to find all four Connections without making 4 mistakes. On your fourth mistake, the game is over and the answer is revealed automatically.

Each of the four groups in each day's Connections puzzle is also assigned a different colour, which represents how easy or difficult the Connection is to find. These colours are: Yellow (Easiest), Green (Easy), Blue (Medium), and Purple (Hardest).

Click here to play today's Connections puzzle!

Connections hint for Friday 9th May

Here are your Connections hints for today:

• Yellow: Tweak your display.
• Green: These words may describe an experience from a long, long time ago.
• Blue: This theme is about outcomes.
• Purple: These words are usually plural.
• Extra hint 1: The purple theme contains three five-letter words.
• Extra hint 2: You'll find a maths, window, and television theme in today's puzzle.

If you need a bit more help, tap the spoiler text below to reveal one word belonging to each group:

• Yellow:Contrast
• Green:Faint
• Blue:Sum
• Purple:Shutter

Spoiler warning! Today's Connections groups are revealed just below!

What are today's Connections groups?

If you need an even bigger clue to figure out today's Connections puzzle, below we'll reveal the four correct Connections groups - the themes which link together each set of four words in the Connections grid.

Here are the Connections groups for today:

• Yellow: Tv Display Settings
• Green: Fuzzy, As A Memory
• Blue: Results Of Some Arithmetic
• Purple: Window Treatments In The Singular

Now that you know the themes for the various different Connections in today's puzzle, see if you can solve it! If not, check below for the full answer.

Spoiler warning! Today's Connections answer lies ahead!

What is today's Connections answer?

Here is the answer to today's Connections puzzle on Friday, 9th May:

• Yellow: Tv Display Settings (Brightness, Color, Contrast, Tint)
• Green: Fuzzy, As A Memory (Dim, Faint, Remote, Vague)
• Blue: Results Of Some Arithmetic (Difference, Product, Quotient, Sum)
• Purple: Window Treatments In The Singular (Blind, Drape, Shade, Shutter)

When I saw 'contrast', 'colour', and 'brightness' I instantly thought 'photoshop' and solved the yellow theme. Turns out it was referring to something else entirely, but a correct answer is a correct answer, right?

Finding 'vague', 'faint', and 'dim', wasn't too hard either, although I needed another good look before I added 'remote'. I assumed it was about blurry visuals before I made the connection with distant memories. I also considered 'shade' and 'blind' for a moment, but 'remote' was clearly the only true group member.

I was working on purple and blue simultaneously, having matched 'quotient and sum' as well as 'shade and shutter', but purple ultimately won the race. Even without the plural form, my brain still thought of window blinds upon seeing these words.

Congratulations if you got today's Connections answer right, with or without the help of our handy hints above! And if you didn't succeed today, don't worry - a new Connections puzzle is released every day at midnight, so you can try again tomorrow, just like with Wordle!