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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 461st Connections game to get you started:
How Did We Solve This Connections Game?
Today wasn’t too difficult.
The first group I spotted was Yellow, “Wine Bottle Info,” which was surprising, considering I don’t drink wine. The words were grape, region, vintage, and winery—words that let you know what you’re getting and where it came from.
Button, knob, slider, and switch are all physical controls (sometimes digitally replicated) that we use to control computers, so that seemed like a promising connection. They were in the Green group, “Console Inputs.”
Pro, Retro, Sub, and Super all stuck out because they’re prefixes, and I didn’t have much else to go with. The Blue group was just “Prefixes.”
That left Burger, California, Lion, and Prom. Since I knew they had to belong to the Purple group, I started attaching other words to see if anything stuck. Eventually I landed on “King,” which creates a different meaning when paired with each of the words in the game. Purple was “____ King.”
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.
