Want today’s answers? They’re here. Along with hints for Mini Crossword, Wordle and the rest. But let’s stick to Connections for now.
Today’s puzzle is a headache. Specifically, that purple group. You have to hunt for hidden words inside bigger ones. It’s sneaky. And fun if you like that sort of torture.
The Times runs a bot for this, like they do for Wordle. Check your stats. Win rate. Perfect scores. How long your streak goes on. You can absolutely nerd out over these numbers if you have time.
Track your progress on the Games section to see if you’re actually improving or just guessing better.
Today’s Hints
Yellow is the easy win. Color of the group itself.
Green requires a pool hall mindset. Think 8-ball.
Blue folks spend their lives in the water.
Purple? Add a letter to make it make sense. Or subtract one, depending on how you look at it.
The Answers
Yellow group. Things that are yellow.
Butter. Pikachu. Rubber duck. School bus.
Hard to mix those up. Unless you hate cartoons.
Green group. Billiards terms.
Break. Cue. Pocket. Rack.
If you play pool you already knew this one. If you don’t… well. Look it up.
Blue group. Slang for a sailor.
Jack. Salt. Sea dog. Tar.
A bit salty. A little tough. Accurate? Probably.
Purple group. Kinds of wood with an “s” removed.
This is the tricky part. The wordplay hides the timber.
Sash hides ash. Soak hides oak. Spine hides pine. Steak hides teak.
You remove the letter s from the answer word and find a wood. Got it? Maybe.
The Hard Ones
Some puzzles hurt more than others. Here are the absolute worst we’ve found. Keep these in mind if you get stuck on similar traps.
- #5: Things you can “set” mood, record, table, volleyball.
- #4: One in a dozen. Egg, juror, month, rose.
- #3: Streets on screen. Elm, Fear, Jump, Sesame.
- #2: “Power” this. Nap, plant, Ranger, trip.
- #1: Things that can run. Candidate, faucet, mascara, nose.
Patterns matter. Recognize the trick and you win. Ignore it and you fail. Which sounds like you?
Next puzzle drops soon. Don’t look up the answers. Or do. We don’t judge.
