Find the links between the words to win today’s game of Connections.
Each day’s game of NYT Connections goes live at midnight local time. As such, “today’s Connections hints and answers” depend on where you are in the world. In case you need them, here are the Connections hints and answers for Wednesday:
Hey there, Connectors! I hope you’re having a terrific week so far.
Spending my time intentionally, or failing to do so as much as I’d like, has been an issue for me for quite some time. It’s something that’s come more into focus for me recently after starting my newsletter which, (very) broadly speaking, is about how we spend our time.
The bulk of my time is mine to spend as I see fit and yet I am constantly frustrated with myself that so many evenings and weekends slip by into the ether. I look at the clock after I wrap up work for the day and suddenly two or three more hours have vanished. I don’t necessarily need to spend my time productively, but it at least needs to be edifying.
Countless hours of scrolling social media feeds on my phone certainly accounts for much of that lost time. In a moment of frustration this week, I deleted Instagram and logged out of other services I was using via a browser, namely X (which I only still keep an eye on for work), Facebook, Reddit and BlueSky. That’s after turning off email notifications at night and disabling Gmail and Discord notifications on my smartwatch.
Play Puzzles & Games on Forbes
These are a small step that won’t necessarily solve my problems. But as I open up the websites I’ve logged out of, returning to them purely out of habit, I see that I’m logged out. That’s a useful reminder that I should do something more satisfying with my time.
Before we begin, we have a great little community on Discord, where we chat about NYT Connections, the rest of the NYT games and all kinds of other stuff. Everyone who has joined has been lovely. It’s a fun hangout spot, and you’re more than welcome to hang out with us.
Discord is also the best way to give me any feedback about the column, especially on the rare (or not-so-rare) occasions that I mess something up. I don’t look at the comments or Twitter much. You can also read my weekend editions of this column at my new newsletter, Pastimes.
Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Thursday, May 29 are coming right up.
How To Play Connections
Connections is a free, popular New York Times daily word game. You get a new puzzle at midnight every day. You can play on the NYT’s website or Games app.
You’re presented with a grid of 16 words. Your task is to arrange them into four groups of four by figuring out the links between them. The groups could be things like items you can click, names for research study participants or words preceded by a body part.
There’s only one solution for each puzzle, and you’ll need to be careful when it comes to words that might fit into more than one category. You can shuffle the words to perhaps help you see links between them.
Each group is color coded. The yellow group is usually the easiest to figure out, blue and green fall in the middle, and the purple group is usually the most difficult one. The purple group often involves wordplay.
Select four words you think go together and press Submit. If you make a guess and you’re incorrect, you’ll lose a life. If you’re close to having a correct group, you might see a message telling you that you’re one word away from getting it right, but you’ll still need to figure out which one to swap.
If you make four mistakes, it’s game over. Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen with the help of some hints, and, if you’re really struggling, today’s Connections answers. As with Wordle and other similar games, it’s easy to share results with your friends on social media and group chats.
If you have an NYT All Access or Games subscription, you can access the publication’s Connections archive. This includes every previous game of Connections, so you can go back and play any of those that you have missed.
Aside from the first 60 games or so, you should be able to find my hints via Google if you need them! Just click here and add the date of the game for which you need clues or the answers to the search query.
What Are Today’s Connections Hints?
Scroll slowly! Just after the hints for each of today’s Connections groups, I’ll reveal what the groups are without immediately telling you which words go into them.
Today’s 16 words are…
- FROST
- RIGHT
- MUSCULAR
- HONOR
- HAIL
- FIT
- POLISH
- POWDER
- PROPER
- ENTHUSIAST
- NUDE
- APPLAUD
- SPRINKLE
- PRAISE
- APT
- GLAZE
And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:
- Yellow group — give someone their flowers
- Green group — it does the job nicely
- Blue group — “scoffing” would literally fit this category title very well, to be quite honest
- Purple group — be in good nick or really into something, perhaps
What Are Today’s Connections Groups?
Need some extra help?
Be warned: we’re starting to get into spoiler territory.
Today’s Connections groups are…
- Yellow group — salute
- Green group — suitable
- Blue group — verbs for finishing donuts
- Purple group — what “buff” might mean
What Are Today’s Connections Answers?
Spoiler alert! Don’t scroll any further down the page until you’re ready to find out today’s Connections answers.
This is your final warning!
Today’s Connections answers are…
- Yellow group — salute (APPLAUD, HAIL, HONOR, PRAISE)
- Green group — suitable (APT, FIT, PROPER, RIGHT)
- Blue group — verbs for finishing donuts (FROST, GLAZE, POWEDER, SPRINKLE)
- Purple group — what “buff” might mean (ENTHUSIAST, MUSCULAR, NUDE, POLISH)
That’s a 93rd win in a row thanks to a perfect game. Just one week away from the 100. Eek! Here’s how I fared:
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟨🟨🟨🟨
This was one of those days when I saw pretty much everything at once. APT was the entry point into the greens, while FROST and GLAZE made the blues pretty clear.
I clocked the yellows right off the bat too. However, I slid through the purples first. That one wasn’t difficult to figure out either, though I didn’t immediately equate NUDE with buff. It took me a moment to remember that “in the buff” can mean “nude.”
That’s all there is to it for today’s Connections clues and answers. Be sure to check my blog tomorrow for hints and the solution for Friday’s game if you need them.
P.S. I like mashups, pro wrestling and Taylor Swift, so this song was right up my alley. It also fits in with our ska punk theme week.
I first came across this track about a decade ago. It blends the super catchy ska punk theme song of WWE wrestler Sami Zayn with “We Are Never Getting Back Together” by Taylor Swift. This works remarkably well. In the back of my mind, I’ve been thinking for years about getting a band (including a brass section) together to cover this. It’s so much fun:
Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Call someone you love!
Please follow my blog for more coverage of NYT Connections and other word games, and even some video game news, insights and analysis. It helps me out a lot! Sharing this column with other people who play Connections would be appreciated too. You can also read my weekend editions of this column at my newsletter, Pastimes.
