Happy Fourth of July! As America celebrates 248 years of independence, it does so one month after Connections‘ own one-year anniversary.
The brainteaser was launched The New York Times in June of last year and has quickly gone on to become the newspaper’s second-most-played game behind Wordle, another word-based puzzle.
If you’ve never played before, Connections challenges players to uncover threads connecting a series of words. Instructions on how to play the game are below. Clues and the answers for today’s puzzle are toward the end of the article.
How to Play Connections
Connections tasks players with grouping 16 words into four categories based on association. For example, Wednesday’s game linked the words “Concrete,” “Material,” “Real,” and “Solid” under the category “Tangible.”
Each of the four categories is labeled with a color, which also signifies their difficulty level. Yellow is the easiest category, followed by green, blue and purple. However, the puzzles are rarely straightforward, using homophones and wordplay, among other techniques, to keep players challenged.
Explaining why the game has four difficulty levels, the Times‘ puzzle editor Wyna Liu said she toyed with different ways to make Connections more of a challenge.
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“There would have to be a mix of categories for the game to feel challenging and satisfying,” she said in the Times. “Some categories might be defined by their use of wordplay—palindromes, homophones, adding or dropping letters and words—rather than the literal meanings of the words on the cards.”
However, the familiarity of the words used, and how often they pop up in modern life, are also difficulty factors, although less-common words aren’t only used in the harder categories. “Item overlap,” where one word can be linked to multiple categories, is another way Connections tests players.
“Caution was needed when including items that might stand out in the grid, since they would invite immediate scrutiny,” Liu explained.
The answers for today’s Connections puzzle will be revealed at the end of this article, so scroll with caution if you want to work them out yourself.
Connections #388 Clues for Thursday, July 4
Newsweek has some hints to help you figure out today’s Connections categories.
Yellow: These words are associated with amorous feelings.
Green: Each of these answers is linked to internet use.
Blue: For these answers, think of going full circle.
Purple: These words precede the name of something that tolls.
Connections #388 Answers for Thursday, July 4
Yellow Category: ROMANTIC RAPPORT
Yellow Words: Attraction, Chemistry, Fireworks, Sparks
Green Category: THINGS STORED BY A WEB BROWSER
Green Words: Cache, Cookies, Data, History
Blue Category: SINGLE ROTATION
Blue Words: Cycle, Lap, Revolution, Turn
Purple Category: WORDS BEFORE “BELL”
Purple Words: Bar, Dinner, Liberty, Tinker
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.