Whether you’re looking to maintain your Connections win streak or start a new one, Newsweek has all the tips you need to secure a word game victory.
Since its launch by The New York Times in June last year, Connections has quickly become a popular online hit.
The game uses a mix of techniques, such as homophones and wordplay, to challenge players, ensuring the puzzles are rarely simple.
It has now become the newspaper’s second most-played game, behind the word-based puzzle Wordle.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to play Connections, share some tips and tricks, and provide clues to help you solve Sunday’s puzzle.
Answers for today’s puzzle are near the end of the article, so proceed with caution.
Getty Images
How to Play Connections
Connections challenges players to categorize 16 words into four groups based on their associations.
Each group is color-coded to reflect its difficulty: Yellow for the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. The puzzles are rarely straightforward, often featuring homophones, wordplay, and other techniques to keep players challenged. If players get stuck, they can use the shuffle button to rearrange the words on the screen.
Wyna Liu, a crossword editor at the Times who developed Connections, recently shared her tips for playing the game with Newsweek.
“My best piece of advice is to wait as long as you can before guessing,” she said.
“You may see the board and have completely identified the category, seeing five words that could belong in that category,” she continued. “Don’t try to guess the four words in that category because even though you know what the fifth member is, you won’t know which of the four it might not be,” which would ultimately waste a turn.
“Don’t do what I do, which is ‘rage solve,'” Liu added.
Connections #434 Clues for Sunday, August 18
Newsweek has some hints to help you figure out today’s Connections categories.
Yellow: Words associated with the first thing you hear when you wake up in the morning.
Green: Words you might use when you are expressing a thought.
Blue: If you like a sweet treat, you might be familiar with these words.
Purple: These words can be linked to one of the most famous fairytales.
Connections #434 Answers for Sunday, August 18
Yellow category: Alarm clock buttons
Yellow words: Alarm, hour, snooze, time set
Green category: Synonyms for the expression “here’s a thought”
Green words: Perhaps, say, suppose, what if
Blue category: Words for candy pieces
Blue words: Kiss, nerd, runt, whopper
Purple category: The name of the Seven Dwarfs, with the last letter removed
Purple words: Do, dope, grump, sleep
Did you guess the answers correctly? If so, congratulations. If not, there will be another opportunity to crack the puzzle tomorrow.