Connections is the latest New York Times' word game to hit the internet, and it has taken social media by storm in the months since its launch.
The game was unveiled by the Times in June 2023 and has quickly gone on to be a viral success. It is now the news outlet's second most-played brainteaser after the hugely popular word game Wordle.
While Wordle, which was created by Josh Wardle, requires players to find one word a day, Connections challenges players to find common threads between a series of words. Players must group them and name the categories.
Like Wordle, the new game can be played online on web browsers and mobile devices.
How To Play 'Connections'
Each puzzle consists of 16 words, with each group of words separated into four categories. The uniting themes are from a broad range of categories.
If all four words are correctly placed into each set, those words will be removed from the board. Each incorrect guess counts toward the mistake tally. Players can make up to four mistakes before the game ends.
Should it make the process of guessing the connections easier, players can shuffle and rearrange the board.
The board also has a color-coding system representing levels of difficulty. Yellow represents the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. A group's color will only be revealed once the words in a group have been correctly connected.
To make the task even trickier, sometimes a word can belong to more than one category—but there is only one correct answer.
Connections editor Wyna Liu has advised that if you notice that there are five or more words that belong to one category, try pivoting to a different category before making your first guess.
"Doing so might take one of those extra cards out of contention, or at least remove a few cards from the board, making other categories easier to see," Liu said.
The answers for today's Connections will be revealed at the end of this article, so please scroll down with caution if you want to work them out for yourself.
'Connections' #311 Clues for Wednesday, April 17
Newsweek has some hints to help you figure out today's Connections categories.
Yellow: These words are associated with holding structures in place.
Green: For these words, think of adhering to guidelines.
Blue: These words are associated with an amount.
Purple: Each of these words is associated with confidential information.
'Connections' #311 Answers for Wednesday, April 17
Yellow Category: UPRIGHT SUPPORT
Yellow Words: Column, Pillar, Pole, Post
Green Category: HEED, AS RULES
Green Words: Follow, Mind, Observe, Regard
Blue Category: ALLOTMENT
Blue Words: Interest, Percentage, Share, Stake
Purple Category: GATHERED BY SPIES
Purple Words: Dirt, Information, Intelligence, Secrets
Did you guess the answers correctly? If so, congratulations. If not, there will be another opportunity to crack the puzzle tomorrow.
Connections is released at midnight in your local time zone. Newsweek will be back with another round of hints and tips for each new game.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Ryan Smith is a Newsweek Senior Pop Culture and Entertainment Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on ... Read more
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