Looking for today's Connections answer, on February 12, the Connections solution to puzzle no. 246 was considerably more difficult than the solution earlier in the week, with a Connections Companion difficulty score of 4.1 out of 5.

We update the Connections clues and hints daily. And if the hints aren't enough for you, you can see all four solutions along with the category title and related words. In addition, for those of you reading this in another time zone, I have included a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #245.

There are spoilers for connection #246. Only those who want to know the answer to today's connection should read on.

Alternatively, see our NYT Connections How to Play Guide for tips on how to solve the puzzle without our help.

While today's wordle solution guide recommends the best wordle starting words as a strategy, the Connections solution depends on identifying the categories that are connected from the 16 words. The difficulty of each category is represented by a color, with yellow being the easiest grouping and purple the most difficult. Hints are helpful as the answer is displayed after four wrong guesses.

If you need a hint to solve the groupings, here are each theme in order of difficulty:

These hints should at least help you find the answer to today's connection. If not, please continue reading for larger hints. Also, if you just want the answer, scroll down further.

Now for a bigger clue. Imagine yourself relaxing in a movie theater with popcorn in hand, and today's connection should come to mind immediately. If you want a magic carpet ride, think of a certain famous movie set in the fictional city of Agrabah.

Now, what is the answer to today's game #246, Connections?

Drum roll, please.

Since Nemo was in yesterday's Connection answer, I must have had Disney in my brain because I immediately thought of talking animals and objects from Disney movies and connected it to Monkey, Parrot, Genie, and Candle. It was an incorrect answer, but since I had one more to go, I didn't mind so much.

I figured I might have to polish up on the Disney classics in particular, so I subbed Candles (Beauty and the Beast, sorry) and chose Princesses (Aladdin, come on down) to officially complete the blue category.

Following Super Bowl 58 in Las Vegas last night, the first thing I thought of when I heard of the referees (referees) was the stylish black and white striped shirts they are famous for wearing. Soon I found mimes, prisoners, and sailors to complete the set of stripes.

Considering how many zooms and team calls I am involved in each week, I was a little surprised that it took me this long to find this third theme: drops, echoes, freezes, and lags are all undesirable aspects of video calls and are the yellow category today .

Apollo, Candle, Fantastic, and Samurai remained, with the latter two (Fantastic Four and Seven Samurai) evoking a connection in my brain and joining Candle with Apollo 13 and 16. That's it.

Read this late in the day. According to the Connection Companion, the answer to the #245 game Connection, which had a difficulty score of 2.7 out of 5, is as follows.

Unusually, I solved the trickiest purple category before the others.

My only thought when combining Auto, Demo, Pluto, and Nemo was that the last letter was common and the sounds it produced were similar. But when I was informed that there was only one more, I looked a little more closely. The first three can, of course, be used with "-cracy" to denote a governing system, but as far as I know, Nemocracy is not a government with a captain at the helm. Bureau (cracy) but works well. Purple is complete.

With Jules Verne's famous sailor already in mind, I found Hook and Morgan as the other two famous captains. Needless to say, Captain America completed the set and became the guest list for the charming dinner party. [Herman Melville, in "The White Whale," describes the sea as like "cats made of fireplace stone leaning against gunwales and purring." Then there is the monotonous sound of the yellow category: Buzz, Drone, Hum, Purr.

Only barges, dollies, squaws, and sloops remained. This theme was all too obvious to the land-based dwellers. Of course, these are the types of boats. They sail and anchor.