It’s almost one year since Connections was unveiled by The New York Times, and it has already proved to be hugely popular among fans of word games.
Launched by the newspaper in June 2023, the brainteaser is now the news outlet’s second-most-played game after Wordle. While similarly word-based, Connections challenges players to uncover threads connecting a series of words.
Should this be your first time trying out Connections, Newsweek has provided some instructions below. Clues and the answers are toward the end of the article.
How to Play ‘Connections’
In Connections, players must group together words that they think have common threads to reveal the name of their corresponding categories.
Each puzzle consists of 16 words, with each group of words separated into four categories. The uniting themes can come from a broad range of categories, including anything from horror-movie franchises to types of sound to food.
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 errors before the game ends.
Players can shuffle and rearrange the board if they want to try to make the process of guessing the connections easier.
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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 be revealed only once the words in a group have been correctly connected.
It is worth pointing out that a word can sometimes belong to more than one category—but there is only one correct answer.
Connections editor Wyna Liu, who is credited with bringing the game to life, 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 with caution if you want to work them out yourself.
‘Connections’ #344 Clues for Monday, May 20
Newsweek has some hints to help you figure out today’s Connections categories.
Yellow: These words represent otherworldly powers.
Green: For these words, think of someone under control.
Blue: These words are associated with a clothes worn by popular characters.
Purple: Each of these answers is the name of an auteur of high-octane films.
‘Connections’ #344 Answers for Monday, May 20
Yellow Category: SORCERER’S OUTPUT
Yellow Words: Charm, Hex, Magic, Spell
Green Category: ONE BEING MANIPULATED
Green Words: Instrument, Pawn, Puppet, Tool
Blue Category: CLASSIC SUPERHERO WEAR
Blue Words: Cape, Mask, Tights, Underwear
Purple Category: ACTION MOVIE DIRECTORS
Purple Words: Bay, Carpenter, Scott, Woo
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.
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