Today's NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for Jan. 10, #944

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for Jan. 10 #944.

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Gael Cooper

CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.

Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, and generational studies Credentials

Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year" award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.

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Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today's Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today's NYT Connections puzzle is pretty difficult, and none of the topics have that pop-culture edge I look for to help me start solving. If you need some help, read on for clues and today's Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Hints for today's Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today's Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: There's nothing inside.

Green group hint: Not hardware.

Blue group hint: Get outta here!

Purple group hint: How big is it?

Answers for today's Connections groups

Yellow group: Hollow cylinders.

Green group: Software platforms.

Blue group: Take off.

Purple group: Units of measure.

What are today's Connections answers?

The completed NYT Connections puzzle for Jan. 10, 2026.

NYT/Screenshot by CNET

The yellow words in today's Connections

The theme is hollow cylinders. The four answers are hose, pipe, straw and tube.

The green words in today's Connections

The theme is software platforms. The four answers are app, desktop, mobile and web.

The blue words in today's Connections

The theme is take off. The four answers are book, dip, jet and split.

The purple words in today's Connections

The theme is units of measure. The four answers are bar, gram, mole and volt.

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Toughest Connections puzzles

We've made a note of some of the toughest Connections puzzles so far. Maybe they'll help you see patterns in future puzzles.

#5: Included "things you can set," such as mood, record, table and volleyball.

#4: Included "one in a dozen," such as egg, juror, month and rose.

#3: Included "streets on screen," such as Elm, Fear, Jump and Sesame.

#2: Included "power ___" such as nap, plant, Ranger and trip.

#1: Included "things that can run," such as candidate, faucet, mascara and nose.

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