dot-connecting

From connect the dots.

dot-connecting (uncountable)

1. The act of connecting the dots.

   Alternative form: dot connecting

   Synonym: dot connection

   • 2015 November 4, Frank Bruni, “The Catholic Church’s Sins Are Ours”, in The New York Times‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 4 November 2015:

     Because of the movie’s focus on the digging and dot-connecting that go into investigative reporting, it has invited comparisons to “All the President’s Men.”

   • 2019 January 25, Dan Duggan, “Giants notebook: Observations from the first few weeks of the team's offseason”, in The Athletic‎^[2], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 25 August 2025:

     Stefanski’s contract expired after this season, which led to some dot-connecting that Shurmur could make another run at the young coach that he worked with for two years in Minnesota.

   • 2019 May 13, Andy Kamenetzky, “The Lakers will have to manage the bad optics of hiring Jason Kidd”, in The Athletic‎^[3], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 22 May 2024:

     [B]oth Ohm Youngmisuk and Ramona Shelburne suspected Kidd’s optics were at least part of the reason he wasn’t named head coach. This lines up with what Stephen A. Smith is saying (along with basic dot-connecting, given the widely reported determination to give Kidd some type of role) and presents the Lakers as trying to mollify fans by giving Kidd a gig but not the best gig.

dot-connecting (not comparable)

1. (attributive) Involving connecting the dots.
   • 2006 December 3, Clive Thompson, “Open-Source Spying”, in The New York Times Magazine‎^[4], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 14 July 2022:

     The Pentagon's infamous Total Information Awareness program, which came to light in 2002, was intended to scoop up information on citizens from a variety of sources – commercial purchase databases, government records – and mine it for suggestive terrorism connections. But to many Americans, this sort of dot-connecting activity seemed like an outrageous violation of privacy, and soon after it was exposed, the program was killed.

   • 2025 November 3, Nick Kosmider, “Why I expect the Broncos to stand pat at the NFL trade deadline”, in The Athletic‎^[5], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 3 November 2025:

     Dot-connecting exercises have pegged New Orleans Saints wide receivers Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed to the Broncos.

   • 2026 January 1, Carlos Lozada, “The Two Questions I Wish We’d Stop Asking in 2026”, in The New York Times‎^[6], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 3 February 2026:

     The first: How did we get here? This one often appears near the beginning of an exchange or an argument, and it heralds a big-picture, chin-stroking, dot-connecting answer.