Today’s Connections Puzzle Is About Fruit Parts And Candy 🍬

Need the answers? Want a hint? We have you covered. Plus Mini Crossword and Wordle tips.

Remember those boring civics lessons on state capitals? They actually matter today. Today’s New York Times Connections puzzle leans hard on that obscure knowledge. It might trip you up unless you paid attention in middle school. Or unless you’re lucky.

The Times finally added a Connections bot. Works like the Wordle one. Go there after playing if you care about the math. You’ll get a score. A breakdown of your moves. Registered players can track stats like a proper nerd. Win streaks. Perfect games. The kind of data that makes losing feel worse.

Nerd out with your stats. Or don’t. Your call.

Here are the clues for July 12, Puzzle #1127.

The Hints

They’re ranked from easiest to hardest. Yellow first. Purple last. Don’t skip ahead if you want to guess on your own.

• Yellow: Bloom and grow.
• Green: Sweet treat.
• Blue: Campus fun.
• Purple: Dove and spring would also fit.

Wait. Dove and spring? What does that have to do with US capitals? Think about the starts of the names. Or lack thereof.

The Answers

Here’s the breakdown. Color-coded because that’s just how the puzzle works.

Yellow Group: Reproductive Parts of Fruit 🌱

This one is straightforward biology. You know these things. They’re hard. They’re inside the fruit. You spit them out.

1. pip
2. pit
3. seed
4. stone

Green Group: Fruit-Flavored Candy 🍭

Little bites of sugar. Kids love these. Adults hate getting them in their teeth.

1. Dot
2. Nerd
3. Runt
4. Spree

Blue Group: College Slogan Verbs 🎓

You probably saw this phrase on a hoodie once. Maybe twice. It sums up the entire student experience in four words.

1. party
2. repeat
3. sleep
4. study

Purple Group: Starts of US Capitals 📍

This was the tricky part. You need to look at the first letters. Specifically, the first few letters. They aren’t cities. They’re abbreviations for the capitals themselves. Or at least the beginning of them.

1. den (Denver)
2. mad (Madison)
3. pho (Phoenix)
4. sac (Sacramento)

Denver. Madison. Phoenix. Sacramento. The hint said dove and spring fit here. Maybe that’s a code for D and S? Or maybe it’s just weird puzzle logic. You’ll figure it out next time. Probably.