Connections answer today: Puzzle #973 categories, word groups, and spoiler-safe hints

Sunday’s Connections puzzle (#973), dated February 8, 2026 (ET), leaned on familiar vocabulary but hid its toughest move in plain sight: a final group that only clicks once you notice a repeated phrase pattern. The grid felt solvable early, then suddenly turned slippery as several words could plausibly belong together—until one organizing idea separated “almost right” from correct.

Spoiler-safe hints players wanted most

If you’re still solving, stop after the hints and come back only when you’re ready for categories or full groups.

• One group is about stopping speech or sound.

• One group is about the same routine over and over.

• One group is about making passwords stronger.

• The hardest group is four words that commonly follow the same starter word.

• The shared starter word is a number.

Why #973 played harder than it looked

The puzzle’s difficulty came from overlap. Words connected to “silencing” can also feel like “control,” while “routine” words can masquerade as “training” or “work.” Meanwhile, password-related terms look like general “computer” vocabulary until you recognize they’re specific strength markers.

That structure creates a classic Connections trap: you can build multiple reasonable sets of four, but only one set aligns with how the game defines the category. The puzzle rewarded solvers who paused to ask, “Is this a theme, or a specific label the game would use?”

Full categories for puzzle #973

Here are the official-style group themes for today’s grid:

• Yellow: Suppress

• Green: Same old stuff

• Blue: Features of a strong password

• Purple: Words that follow “TWO”

Full word groups (final reveal)

Yellow — SUPPRESS
GAG, INHIBIT, MUZZLE, SILENCE

Green — SAME OLD STUFF
DRILL, GRIND, HABIT, ROUTINE

Blue — FEATURES OF A STRONG PASSWORD
LENGTH, NUMBER, SYMBOL, UPPERCASE

Purple — WORDS AFTER “TWO”
BITS, CENTS, FACED, TIMER

The purple group: the pattern that decides the puzzle

Today’s purple set was a “phrase-follow” group built around a single shared starter: TWO. Each answer forms a common expression—two bits, two cents, two-faced, two-timer—spanning slang, everyday speech, and hyphenated descriptors.

This is the kind of group that can feel unfair if you’re solving purely by meaning, because the link isn’t semantic. The words don’t “belong together” in a topic sense; they belong together because they complete the same construction. Once you spot one (often “two cents”), the rest can cascade quickly.

The clean sets that set you up for mistakes

Two of today’s categories were straightforward once isolated:

• The password group is a tight checklist of strength signals: longer length, mixed case, numbers, symbols. Many players get stuck because they try to fold in broader security ideas, but this set stays strictly on composition.

• The routine group can look like it’s about work or training, but it’s really the feeling of repetition—drill, grind, habit, routine—four different ways to describe the same loop.

The suppress set can be the easiest or hardest depending on what you see first. “Gag” and “muzzle” immediately suggest silencing; “inhibit” is the bridge word that can pull you into other interpretations if you’re not careful.

What #973 suggests about the next few grids

When a puzzle uses a phrase-follow purple group, it often signals more pattern-based thinking ahead: compound words, common prefixes, keyboard-style groupings, or “words that pair with X.” A good solver habit is to scan your remaining words late and ask, “Could these be completing a phrase?” rather than forcing them into a topic.

Sources consulted: The New York Times; Forbes; TechRadar; Parade