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.

The April 12th connections board with no words guessed.

Hints for Today’s Connections Categories

Here are a few small hints for the 306th Connections game to get you started:

How Did We Solve This Connections Game?

April 12th seemed pretty easy compared to yesterday.

Purple, “Items in Classic Kids' Games,” jumped out immediately when we saw domino and marble together, and after that, jack and stick came quickly.

Clean, neat, tidy, and trim belonged to the Yellow category, which was “Orderly.”

April 12th Connections game with all of the categories guessed.

Hyper, super, uber, and ultra also stick together quite nicely. Green was “Augmentative Prefixes.”

That just leaves balloon, mushroom, snowball, swell. While very different as nouns, they can all be used as verbs to describe an increase in size or scope, or “Become Larger.”

How Do You Guess Connections Categories?

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.