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Summary
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 small hints for the 329th Connections game to get you started:
How Did We Solve This Connections Game?
May 5th was pretty normal.
The first group I spotted was Green. Everything and poppy wound up next to each other, and I was instantly reminded of bagels. A quick survey of the words also produced plain and egg—also “Kinds of Bagels.”
Further shuffling put benefit, reward, and return together. They can all represent a similar idea, some kind of return on investment. Fruit is really the only word that could conceivably match up, so I took a chance on it. Together, the 4 are “Something Gained from Hard Work,” and belong to the Yellow group.
Vamp immediately struck me as a shortened version of “Vampire,” and I decided to check other words to see if they were also missing endings. Unfortunately, there were 5 words that had potential: frank, mum, were, act, and direct. However, if we apply a monster theme, then frank(einstein), mum(my), and were(wolf) seem to be the most likely candidates. Purple was “Starts of Monsters.”
That left act, direct, produce, and write as Blue. In isolation, they’re pretty easy to spot as terms associated with film or television making. The proper name of the group is “Contribute to a Movie.”
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.
