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Connections is a game from the New York Times that challenges you to find the association between words. It sounds easy, but it isn’t—Connections categories can be almost anything, and they’re usually quite specific. If you need a hand getting the answers, we’ve got you covered.
What Is Connections?
Connections is a game from the New York Times. The objective is simple: sort 16 words into groups of 4. Each group of words will be connected by some common idea or theme. That common element could be anything. We have seen everything from games that rely on the number of letters in the words to categories that require you to spot an extra letter at the end of the word. Sometimes they’re references to economics, other times they reference fairy tales. There is no telling what sort of association there will be between words.
Once you’re confident you understand the connection, select 4 words, then hit “Submit.” You have only four attempts in total, so don’t be too guess-happy.
Hints for Today’s Connections Groups
Here are a few hints for the 348th Connections game to get you started:
How Did We Solve This Connections Game?
May 24th was a pretty normal game.
The first word I started with was Cheese for no other reason than that cheese is awesome. Cheese can be a verb or a noun, or a figure of speech meaning “overly sentimental” when it is used as “cheesy.” Plenty of the words are food related, but egg, corn, cheese, and schmaltz aren’t a combination you hear about a lot, so it seems unlikely they’re in a group. On the other hand, corny, sappy, and schmaltz can all mean “sentimental.” Cheese, corn, sap, and schmaltz were in the Green group, “Food Products Associated with Sentimentality.”
Next I looked at the word duct. A duct is used to move air or water, and drains, pipes, and sewers are all used to move water, too. Together, those words were in the Yellow group, which was “Conduits for Water Removal.”
I knew Purple might be missing a word, so I started testing words at the beginning and ends of the remaining words. Eventually, I landed on “change.” It fits behind chump, climate, loose, and sea. Purple was just “____ Change.”
That left egg, knuckles, smiles, and window. In isolation, it became a bit easier to see that they’re all things you may crack, and in the case of windows, it can mean two entirely different things. Blue was “Things to Crack.”
How Do You Guess Connections Groups?
There is no quick, reliable way to approach Connections like there is with Wordle, since Connections isn’t algorithmic. However, there are a few things to keep in mind that can help.
If you didn’t solve this one, don’t feel too bad—there’s always tomorrow! And those words may align with a topic you’re interested in, giving you a leg up on the competition.
