NYT Connections: February 3 puzzle leans classic, with “MEMORY ___” as the late twist
The daily Connections: February 3 grid (Game #968) landed as a relatively approachable puzzle built around familiar word families—cooking cuts, lodging verbs, golf equipment—before finishing with a phrase-based twist that tripped up many players who were thinking definition-first. The set rewarded steady sorting and punished overthinking, especially on tiles that can belong to multiple everyday contexts.
The four groups were cleanly themed, but the board still offered a few believable decoys. “BOARD,” for example, can read as a game surface or a school board, while “WOOD” can feel like a material rather than an object category. Those overlaps created just enough friction to produce mistakes without turning the puzzle into a trick-fest.
Today’s 16 words and the early shape of the grid
Game #968’s words were: CARD, WOOD, FOAM, DICE, BOARD, CUBE, QUARTER, HOLE, HASH, HOUSE, IRON, MINCE, WEDGE, LANE, LODGE, PUTTER.
At first glance, the grid split into two obvious “clusters”: kitchen verbs (CUBE, DICE, HASH, MINCE) and golf nouns (IRON, PUTTER, WEDGE, WOOD). That left a tighter remainder where “BOARD,” “HOUSE,” “LODGE,” and “QUARTER” could lock together—if you interpret them as verbs—rather than pulling BOARD toward “CARD” in a games theme.
The categories and answers for February 3
Here is the full breakdown of the four groups and their solutions:
| Color | Category | Answers |
|---|---|---|
| Yellow | Cut into pieces | CUBE, DICE, HASH, MINCE |
| Green | Provide with a place to stay | BOARD, HOUSE, LODGE, QUARTER |
| Blue | Kinds of golf clubs | IRON, PUTTER, WEDGE, WOOD |
| Purple | MEMORY ___ | CARD, FOAM, HOLE, LANE |
The final group’s construction was the key: each word forms a familiar phrase when paired with “memory,” like “memory card” and “memory lane.” That style of grouping often arrives late in a solve because players naturally try to connect words by meaning instead of by phrase pattern.
Why “BOARD” and “WOOD” were the main traps
The puzzle’s most convincing misdirection centered on words that feel like they belong to “games” or “objects” rather than “actions.”
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BOARD: It’s easy to see “board” as a noun (game board, board game) and start hunting for other “game” words like DICE and CARD. The correct solve uses BOARD as a verb—providing meals and lodging.
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WOOD: If you read WOOD as a material, it seems like it should group with something else tactile or household (FOAM, maybe). But “wood” is also a standard golf club type, making it a clean fit with IRON, WEDGE, and PUTTER once you commit to sports equipment.
Those two tiles also create cross-pressure: if you prematurely lock CARD + DICE + BOARD into “games,” you strand yourself with FOAM and LANE and start forcing a category that isn’t there.
The “MEMORY ___” finish and why it worked
The purple group succeeded because it used common phrases rather than a shared definition. Each of the four tiles can be completed into something you’d hear in everyday speech:
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memory card
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memory foam
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memory hole
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memory lane
The clever bit is that the four completed phrases don’t all refer to the same “kind” of memory. One is tech storage, one is bedding, one is a concept tied to forgetting or disappearance, and one is nostalgia. That variety makes the group harder to spot unless you switch into “blank-filler” mode.
A quick solve path that minimized mistakes
Players who solved smoothly tended to follow a simple order:
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Lock the cooking cuts first (CUBE, DICE, HASH, MINCE).
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Grab the golf clubs once you see the equipment set (IRON, PUTTER, WEDGE, WOOD).
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Treat the lodging set as verbs, not nouns (BOARD, HOUSE, LODGE, QUARTER).
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Finish with the phrase pattern (CARD, FOAM, HOLE, LANE).
The only real danger in that path is stepping on the “games” rake early—especially if you’re moving fast and letting “DICE + CARD” pull your attention away from the kitchen category.
What made February 3 feel “fair”
This puzzle didn’t rely on obscure references, niche slang, or multi-step wordplay. The difficulty came from ordinary ambiguity—words with multiple common meanings—rather than specialized knowledge. That’s why many streak-holders viewed it as a “fair” grid: even when you missed, the correction was understandable immediately after the reveal.
With the week underway, this entry also served as a gentle palate cleanser: a puzzle you could solve quickly, but still one that rewarded careful reading and flexible thinking.
Sources consulted: The New York Times Games; Forbes; TechRadar; Tom’s Guide
