Connections is a big hit and really tests players’ knowledge of words with common themes.
It was launched in June 2023 and is The New York Times’ the second-most played game after Wordle.
It can be challenging at times, so Newsweek has put together some handy hints to help you solve today’s game.
Instructions on how to play the game are below. The answers for Friday’s puzzle are toward the end of the article, so scroll with caution if you want to work them out yourself.
How to Play Connections
Players are tasked with grouping 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 signifies their difficulty level, beginning with yellow as the easiest, then green, blue and finally the toughest category, 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.
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.
To make things a bit tougher, a word can sometimes belong to more than one category—but there is only one correct answer.
Players can shuffle and rearrange the board if they want to try to make the process of guessing the connections easier.
‘Connections’ #446 Clues for Friday, August 30
Newsweek has some hints to help you figure out today’s Connections categories.
Yellow: A magpie would be attracted to these things.
Green: We saw people doing these recently in Paris.
Blue: Ancient marvels.
Purple: Words that come after frozen water.
Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images
‘Connections’ #446 Answer for Friday, August 30
Yellow Category: SPARKLING THINGS
Yellow Words: Gold, Diamond, Glitter, Sequin
Green Category: PARTICIPATE IN SUMMER OLYMPIC EVENTS
Green Words: Box, Dive, Fence, Row
Blue Category: WONDERS OF THE WORLD
Blue Words: Gardens, Lighthouse, Pyramid, Temple
Purple Category: ICE ______
Purple Words: Cream, Cube, Machine, Storm
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 Saturday.
Connections is released at midnight in your local time zone, and Newsweek will be back tomorrow with another round of hints and tips.