If you’re not yet acquainted with Connections—The New York Times‘ latest viral word game—Newsweek has provided instructions and hints to help make your inaugural experience a successful one.
The game was launched in June 2023, and has already gone on to become the Times‘ second-most played game after Wordle.
Connections presents players with the challenge of uncovering threads connecting a series of words.
Should you need some help with getting started, Newsweek has provided some instructions below. Clues and the answers are toward the end of the article.
How To Play ‘Connections’
Each puzzle consists of 16 words, with each group of words separated into four categories.
If all four words are correctly placed into each set, those words will be removed from the board. Each incorrect guess counts toward the mistake tally. Players can make up to four mistakes before the game ends.
Should it make the process of guessing the connections easier, players can shuffle and rearrange the board.
The board also has a color-coding system representing levels of difficulty. Yellow represents the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. A group’s color will only be revealed once the words in a group have been correctly connected.
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To make the task all the more challenging, a word can sometimes belong to more than one category—but there is only one correct answer.
Connections editor Wyna Liu has advised that if you notice that there are five or more words that belong to one category, try pivoting to a different category before making your first guess.
“Doing so might take one of those extra cards out of contention, or at least remove a few cards from the board, making other categories easier to see,” Liu said.
The answers for today’s Connections puzzle will be revealed at the end of this article, so please scroll down with caution if you want to work them out yourself.
‘Connections’ #332 Clues for Wednesday, May 8
Newsweek has some hints to help you figure out today’s Connections categories.
Yellow: These words describe a primary color.
Green: For these words, think of small measures.
Blue: These words could represent champions.
Purple: Each of these answers precedes a word associated with cleanliness.
‘Connections’ #332 Answers for Wednesday, May 8
Yellow Category: SHADES OF RED
Yellow Words: Brick, Cherry, Rose, Ruby
Green Category: LITTLE BIT OF A BEVERAGE
Green Words: Drop, Splash, Spot, Sprinkle
Blue Category: CHOICEST
Blue Words: Best, Cream, Pick, Top
Purple Category: ____ BATH
Purple Words: Bird, Bubble, Mud, Sponge
Did you guess the answers correctly? If so, congratulations. If not, there will be another opportunity to crack the puzzle tomorrow.
Connections is released at midnight in your local time zone. Newsweek will be back with another round of hints and tips for each new game.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.