The New York Times daily Connections puzzle (#944) proved challenging today, with no immediately obvious connections. For players seeking assistance, here are the hints and solutions. The puzzle features four categories, ranked by difficulty from easiest to hardest.
Category Breakdown and Hints
The game tests players’ ability to identify relationships between seemingly random words. The categories are designed to vary in complexity, with the purple group often being the most obscure.
- Yellow Group: Hint: These items are empty inside.
- Green Group: Hint: These aren’t physical tools.
- Blue Group: Hint: These all suggest leaving.
- Purple Group: Hint: These are ways we quantify things.
Solutions Revealed
The Times Connections puzzle requires identifying four groups of four words based on a shared theme. Here are today’s solutions:
Yellow: Hollow Cylinders
The yellow group consists of hose, pipe, straw, and tube. All four words represent hollow cylindrical objects used for containing or transferring fluids or substances.
Green: Software Platforms
The green group includes app, desktop, mobile, and web. These are all terms referring to different software platforms or interfaces used for computing and application access.
Blue: Take Off
The blue group features book, dip, jet, and split. Each word can be associated with the phrase “take off” in different contexts (e.g., “take off a book,” “take off from dip,” “take off in a jet,” “take off in a split”).
Purple: Units of Measure
The purple group, the most difficult, contains bar, gram, mole, and volt. These represent various units used in scientific and technical measurement: pressure (bar), mass (gram), chemistry (mole), and electricity (volt).
Tracking Puzzle Performance
The New York Times now provides a Connections Bot to analyze player performance. Registered users can track their progress, including completion rates, perfect scores, and win streaks. This feature adds a competitive element to the game.
Previously Challenging Puzzles
Some past Connections puzzles have stood out as particularly difficult. Analyzing these puzzles can help players identify patterns.
- Puzzle #5: Focused on things that can be “set” (mood, record, table, volleyball).
- Puzzle #4: Involved obscure connections like “one in a dozen” (egg, juror, month, rose).
- Puzzle #3: Combined seemingly unrelated items such as streets on screen (Elm, Fear, Jump, Sesame).
- Puzzle #2: Connected words to the phrase “power ___” (nap, plant, Ranger, trip).
- Puzzle #1: Challenged players with items that can “run” (candidate, faucet, mascara, nose).
These puzzles demonstrate the range of connections the game can explore, from straightforward themes to highly abstract associations. The difficulty lies in recognizing the underlying logic behind each grouping.
