Each day’s game of NYT Connections goes live at midnight local time. Before we get to today’s Connections hints and answers, here are Sunday’s:

Hey there, Connectors! Welcome to the start of a new week. I’m very happy to be back here with you for another Monday-Friday run of this column.

As you may know by now, I like to kick off the Monday editions of this thing with a fun, upbeat song. The whole idea is to lift your mood, and maybe get you dancing a little to boost those endorphins.

I’ve been listening to this song all weekend after "ocean" popped up as an answer in the NYT Mini crossword the other day. Frank Ocean is a spectacular artist, and "Lost" is one of his very best songs:

Oddly enough, I wrote the above before finding out that Ocean just released the vinyl version of Channel Orange, the 2012 album on which “Lost” is featured.

Before we begin, we have a great little community on Discord, where we chat about NYT Connections, the rest of the NYT games and all kinds of other stuff. Everyone who has joined has been lovely. It’s a fun hangout spot, and you’re more than welcome to hang out with us.

Discord is also the best way to give me any feedback about the column, especially on the rare (or not-so-rare) occasions that I mess something up. I don’t look at the comments or Twitter much. You can also read my weekend editions of this column at my new newsletter, Pastimes.

Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Monday, June 30 are coming right up.

Connections is a free, popular New York Times daily word game. You get a new puzzle at midnight every day. You can play on the NYT’s website or Games app.

You’re presented with a grid of 16 words. Your task is to arrange them into four groups of four by figuring out the links between them. The groups could be things like items you can click, names for research study participants or words preceded by a body part.

There’s only one solution for each puzzle, and you’ll need to be careful when it comes to words that might fit into more than one category. You can shuffle the words to perhaps help you see links between them.

Each group is color coded. The yellow group is usually the easiest to figure out, blue and green fall in the middle, and the purple group is usually the most difficult one. The purple group often involves wordplay.

Select four words you think go together and press Submit. If you make a guess and you’re incorrect, you’ll lose a life. If you’re close to having a correct group, you might see a message telling you that you’re one word away from getting it right, but you’ll still need to figure out which one to swap.

If you make four mistakes, it’s game over. Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen with the help of some hints, and, if you’re really struggling, today’s Connections answers. As with Wordle and other similar games, it’s easy to share results with your friends on social media and group chats.

If you have an NYT All Access or Games subscription, you can access the publication’s Connections archive. This includes every previous game of Connections, so you can go back and play any of those that you have missed.

Aside from the first 60 games or so, you should be able to find our hints Google if you need them! Just click here and add the date of the game for which you need clues or the answers to the search query.

Scroll slowly! Just after the hints for each of today’s Connections groups, I’ll reveal what the groups are without immediately telling you which words go into them.

Today’s 16 words are...

And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:

Need some extra help?

Be warned: we’re starting to get into spoiler territory.

Let’s take a look at one word for each group.

Today’s Connections word hints are…

Today’s Connections groups are...

Spoiler alert! Don’t scroll any further down the page until you’re ready to find out today’s Connections answers.

This is your final warning!

Today’s Connections answers are...

I got off to a great start today. I had three of the yellows locked in immediately, but I had never known of a BRIDGE as a type of dental work. I just learned something.

VELVET then jumped out at me, and it didn't take me long to find the blues. I have never watched Twin Peaks and I should absolutely fix that. The other works referenced here are Mulholland Drive, Lost Highway and Blue Velvet.

I messed up with my next guess of WHIRLWIND, AIRPLANE, HOT TUB NOZZLE and ROLLER COASTER. My theory was that they are things that can create a spiral or vortex. But I wasn't even one away.

I stared at NFL PLAYER for a good few moments. I racked my brain for every team name I could think of and eventually landed on the New York Jets. "Jet" fit with a few other words and I had the purples.

That left the greens. Quite the tough group there, I thought, thought the connection did click before I sent those through to secure my 125th win in a row.

Here's my grid for today:

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That’s all there is to it for today’s Connections clues and answers. Be sure to check my blog tomorrow for hints and the solution for Tuesday’s game if you need them.

P.S. I’m not a big drum & bass guy, but a friend used this song in an Instagram story and I thought it was cool, so here we are. Weirdly enough, "Flute" from DJ and producer Monss uses several flute samples. I never would have imagined:

Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Be kind to yourself and each other! Call someone you love!

Please follow my blog for more coverage of NYT Connections and other word games, and even some video game news, insights and analysis. It helps me out a lot! Sharing this column with other people who play Connections would be appreciated too. You can also read my weekend editions of this column at my new newsletter, Pastimes.