Whether you’re looking to maintain your Connections win streak or start a new one, Newsweek has all the tips you need to solve today’s puzzle.
And if you’re still having trouble working it out, we have the answers for you at the end of this article.
Connections was released to the public in June 2023 and in less than a year became the second-most played game on The New York Times games app and website behind its popular stablemate Wordle.
“The response has been really incredible and overwhelming, and unexpected,” Connections editor, Wyna Liu told Newsweek in June. “It’s exciting that something I care very deeply about is resonating with people.”
“The game has evolved with the solvers, and responds to solvers’ experience and expectations,” she said, pointing out how she now sometimes “clusters” words on the board together that may trick people into thinking they don’t belong together at all.
Instructions on how to play the game are below. Clues and answers for Thursday’s puzzle are below the instructions, so scroll with caution.
How to Play ‘Connections’
The daily game requires people to group 16 words into four categories based on association. For example, one game linked the words “clear,” “earn,” “make” and “net,” which all came under the category “take home, as income.”
Each of the four categories is labeled with a color, which also indicates the level of difficulty. Yellow is the easiest category, followed by green, blue and then purple. However, the puzzles are rarely straightforward, using homophones and wordplay, among other techniques, to keep things interesting.
The uniting themes can come from a broad range of categories—anything from Halloween costumes to music genres and even geometric terms.
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. Up to four errors can be made before it is game over.
‘Connections’ #445 Clues for Thursday, August 29
Newsweek has some hints to help you figure out today’s Connections categories.
Yellow: Different ways to tickle the ivories.
Green: You would do this when you to come to think of something in a way.
Blue: Higher education.
Purple: Big businesses with multiple names.
The New York Times
‘Connections’ #445 Answers for Thursday, August 29
Yellow Category: KINDS OF PIANOS
Yellow Words: Electronic, Player, Grand, Upright
Green Category: DEEM
Green Words: Consider, Judge, Count, Regard
Blue Category: U.S. COLLEGES/UNIVERSITIES
Blue Words: Brown, Duke, Howard, Smith
Purple Category: SECOND NAMES IN COMPANIES WITH AMPERSANDS
Purple Words: Gamble, Johnson, Noble, Young
Did you work out the answers? If so, congratulations; if not, please don’t be put off the game. Practice makes perfect, and the next Connections puzzle will be published on Friday.
Connections is released at midnight in your local time zone, and Newsweek will be back tomorrow with another round of hints and tips.
If you can’t wait, why not try these other popular online word puzzle games?