NYT Connections Answers for June 9 Include Symbols of Innocence and Superscript Clues

The NYT Connections puzzle for Tuesday, June 9, game 1094, brings a tricky mix of simple words, hidden meanings, and one music related group that may catch many players off guard. Today’s 16 words are Asterisk, Axe, Angel, Surprise, Secret, Trademark, Bone, Dove, Degree, Password, Lamb, Keys, Babe, Skins, Exponent, and Spoiler.

The puzzle has four groups, as usual. Each group contains four words connected by a shared theme. Today’s set is rated hard, mainly because several words can appear to belong to more than one category. Words like Keys, Password, Secret, and Axe can easily push you toward the wrong idea before the correct groups become clear.

If you are still solving, the safer way to approach this puzzle is to look for the most obvious category first. Angel, Babe, Dove, and Lamb all point toward innocence. That gives you one clean group and removes four distracting words from the board.

Today’s NYT Connections groups and answers

The green group is also fairly clear once you stop thinking about physical access or security tools. Password, Secret, Spoiler, and Surprise are all things people usually should not reveal. The word “Surprise” may feel softer than the others, but it fits because revealing a surprise ruins the moment.

The blue group is more technical. Asterisk, Degree, Exponent, and Trademark are all commonly shown in superscript. You may see the asterisk placed above text, a degree symbol beside a number, an exponent raised in math, or a trademark symbol placed above and after a product name.

The purple group is the hardest one today

The purple category is likely the toughest part of game 1094. Axe, Bone, Keys, and Skins are all slang terms for musical instruments. Axe can refer to a guitar, Keys can refer to a keyboard or piano, and Skins can refer to drums. Bone is the less obvious one because it can be short for trombone.

This group is difficult because the same words can easily mislead you. Keys and Password look like they belong together. Axe and Keys might make you think of ways to get into a locked door. Trademark and Secret can also suggest protection or ownership. Those false paths are what make today’s puzzle harder than it first appears.

The best solve order is probably Yellow first, then Green, then Blue, and finally Purple by elimination. Once the innocence and reveal related groups are gone, the superscript category becomes easier to spot. After that, the remaining four words point to the music slang category.

Yesterday’s puzzle for Monday, June 8, game 1093, used categories such as landforms by water, slang for head, things that can be spiked, and “The ____ Man” movies. Compared with that, today’s puzzle feels more deceptive because the words overlap across several possible ideas.

For today, the final answers are Angel, Babe, Dove, and Lamb for symbols of innocence; Password, Secret, Spoiler, and Surprise for things you are not supposed to reveal; Asterisk, Degree, Exponent, and Trademark for things represented in superscript; and Axe, Bone, Keys, and Skins for slang for musical instruments.