As the weekend wraps up, the popular game Connections is still going strong.
Since its launch in June 2023 by The New York Times, Connections has quickly built a large fanbase, challenging players to group words based on hidden links like homophones, synonyms, and clever wordplay. Combining logic with language skills, it’s now the second-most popular game just behind Wordle.
In this guide, we’ll explain how to play Connections, share strategies to boost your puzzle-solving abilities, and provide hints for Sunday’s challenge.
Be mindful—Sunday’s answers are included later on in this article, so avoid spoilers if you want to solve it on your own!
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,” Liu 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.” This would ultimately waste a turn.
“Don’t do what I do, which is ‘rage solve,'” Liu added.
Connections #490 Clues for Sunday, October 13
Newsweek has some hints to help you figure out today’s Connections categories.
Yellow: These are all made from a substance that makes up three parts of the human body.
Green: Common things seen on a popular cartoon.
Blue: Words associated with a particular item of clothing.
Purple: Words that all share a common word in a phrase.
Connections #490 Answers for Sunday, October 13
Yellow category: Made of keratin
Yellow words: Claw, hoof, horn, nail
Green category: Road Runner cartoon staples
Green words: Anvil, Boulder, Coyote, TNT
Blue category: Kinds of pants
Blue words: Capri, cargo, hammer, stirrup
Purple category: Types of roll
Purple words: California, drum, egg, honor
Did you guess the answers correctly? If so, congratulations. If not, there will be another opportunity to crack the puzzle on Monday.
Read the full article here
