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Connections is a game from the New York Times that challenges you to find the association between words. It sounds easy, but it isn’t—Connections categories can be almost anything, and they’re usually quite specific. If you need a hand getting the answers, we’ve got you covered.
What Is Connections?
Connections is a game from the New York Times. The objective is simple: sort 16 words into groups of 4. Each group of words will be connected by some common idea or theme. That common element could be anything. We have seen everything from games that rely on the number of letters in the words to categories that require you to spot an extra letter at the end of the word. Sometimes they’re references to economics, other times they reference fairy tales. There is no telling what sort of association there will be between words.
Once you’re confident you understand the connection, select 4 words, then hit “Submit.” You have only four attempts in total, so don’t be too guess-happy.
Hints for Today’s Connections Groups
Here are a few hints for the 457th Connections game to get you started:
How Did We Solve This Connections Game?
The 457th game was of middling difficulty.
The first group I got was Blue—“Ratings Systems.” A-F and percentage instantly tipped me off that we were talking about grading of some kind. From there, stars or thumbs were pretty obviously other ways to rank things.
Deliver and hand made me think of food delivery (maybe I’m just hungry?), but it also made me think of transferring items or goods between people. From there, give and pass seemed likely to be related. The Green group was “Transfer.”
Kinds, sorts, stripes, and types refer to different kinds of things, though stripe is a bit uncommon in this context. They were in the Yellow group, “Varieties.”
That left checkers, deck of cards, monarchy, and NHL in Purple. Checkers and monarchy eventually made me realize that the common element between all of the remaining words was “Kings.” Everything listed has a king of some kind or another. Purple was just “Things with Kings.”
How Do You Guess Connections Groups?
There is no quick, reliable way to approach Connections like there is with Wordle, since Connections isn’t algorithmic. However, there are a few things to keep in mind that can help.
If you didn’t solve this one, don’t feel too bad—there’s always tomorrow! And those words may align with a topic you’re interested in, giving you a leg up on the competition.
