If youre looking for the Connections answer for Monday, March 11, 2024, read onIll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solutions to all four categories. Along the way, Ill explain the meanings of the trickier words and well learn how everything fits together. Beware, there are spoilers below for March 11, NYT Connections #274! Read on if you want some hints (and then the answer) to todays Connections game.

If you want an easy way to come back to our Connections hints every day, bookmark this page. You can also find our past hints there as well, in case you want to know what you missed in a previous puzzle.

Below, Ill give you some oblique hints at todays Connections answers. And farther down the page, Ill reveal the themes and the answers. Scroll slowly and take just the hints you need!

Credit: Connections/NYT Hints for the themes in todays Connections puzzleHere are some spoiler-free hints for the groupings in todays Connections:

Yellow category - Mollycoddle.

Green category - Derriere.

Blue category - Bathtime.

Purple category - Belonging to a furry friend.

BEWARE: Spoilers follow for todays Connections puzzle!Were about to give away some of the answers. Scroll slowly if you dont want the whole thing spoiled. (The full solution is a bit further down.)

A heads up about the tricky partsSometimes a MEOW is just a MEOW. And then sometimes its part of a fill-in-the-blank.

Today, BABY and PAMPER go together, but were not referring to diapers. (BUM is in a different category entirely.) We also have some bathtime related items, but the BABY is not the one getting the bath.

What are the categories in todays Connections?Yellow: TREAT WITH EXCESSIVE CARE

Green: BACKSIDE

Blue: THINGS IN A SPA LOCKER ROOM

Purple: CATS ____

DOUBLE BEWARE: THE SOLUTION IS BELOWReady to learn the answers to todays Connections puzzle? I give them all away below.

What are the yellow words in todays Connections?The yellow grouping is considered to be the most straightforward. The theme for todays yellow group is TREAT WITH EXCESSIVE CARE and the words are: BABY, MOTHER, PAMPER, SPOIL.

What are the green words in todays Connections?The green grouping is supposed to be the second-easiest. The theme for todays green category is BACKSIDE and the words are: BOOTY, BUM, CAN, REAR.

What are the blue words in todays Connections?The blue grouping is the second-hardest. The theme for todays blue category is THINGS IN A SPA LOCKER ROOM and the words are: ROBE, SLIPPERS, TOWEL, WASHCLOTH.

What are the purple words in todays Connections?The purple grouping is considered to be the hardest. The theme for todays purple category is CATS ____ and the words are: CRADLE, EYE, MEOW, PAJAMAS.

How I solved todays ConnectionsThe whole board seems to paint a picture of a MOTHER trying to take care of a BABYwiping its little BUM, putting on PAJAMASwithout having had a chance to change out of her ROBE yet. Maybe Im having flashbacks. What are we really looking at here? Well, BOOTY, BUM, REAR, and CAN are all synonyms.

I thought that maybe we had BABY teeth and EYE teeth, but that fizzled out. Whats MEOW doing here? Ahacats MEOW, cats PAJAMAS, cats EYE, cats CRADLE.

And if we use MOTHER as a verb, it can mean to PAMPER, to SPOIL, to BABY.

Finally we have things that can be made of terry cloth: ROBE, SLIPPERS, TOWEL, WASHCLOTH. Thats not the category title the constructors had in mind, but it still fits.

Connections Puzzle #274 How to play ConnectionsI have a full guide to playing Connections, but heres a refresher on the rules:

First, find the Connections game either on the New York Times website or in their Games app (formerly the Crossword app). Youll see a game board with 16 tiles, each with one word or phrase. Your job is to select a group of four tiles that have something in common. Often they are all the same type of thing (for example: RAIN, SLEET, HAIL, and SNOW are all types of wet weather) but sometimes there is wordplay involved (for example, BUCKET, GUEST, TOP TEN, and WISH are all types of lists: bucket list, guest list, and so on).

Select four items and hit the Submit button. If you guessed correctly, the category and color will be revealed. (Yellow is easiest, followed by green, then blue, then purple.) If your guess was incorrect, youll get a chance to try again.

You win when youve correctly identified all four groups. But if you make four mistakes before you finish, the game ends and the answers are revealed.

How to win ConnectionsThe most important thing to know to win Connections is that the groupings are designed to be tricky. Expect to see overlapping groups. For example, one puzzle seemed to include six breakfast foods: BACON, EGG, PANCAKE, OMELET, WAFFLE, and CEREAL. But BACON turned out to be part of a group of painters along with CLOSE, MUNCH, and WHISTLER, and EGG was in a group of things that come by the dozen (along with JUROR, ROSE, and MONTH). So dont hit submit until youve confirmed that your group of four contains only those four things.

If youre stuck, another strategy is to look at the words that seem to have no connection to the others. If all that comes to mind when you see WHISTLER is the painting nicknamed Whistlers Mother, you might be on to something. When I solved that one, I ended up googling whether there was a painter named Close, because Close didnt fit any of the obvious themes, either.

Another way to win when youre stuck is, obviously, to read a few helpful hintswhich is why we share these pointers every day. Check back tomorrow for the next puzzle!