Answers and Hints for Puzzle #351

It may only have launched in June 2023, but Connections is already The New York Times second-most-popular game after Wordle.

The word puzzle tasks players with grouping sixteen words into four categories based on association. Sounds simple, but the game is surprisingly tough—which might be why it’s got puzzle nerds hooked.

If you’re finding today’s Connections brainteaser a challenge, Newsweek has put together a few hints to help you out.

How to Play ‘Connections’

If you’ve never played Connections before, the premise is easy enough to grasp. For example, Friday’s game linked the words “Eggs,” “Knuckles,” “Smile” and “Window,” which are all “Things to Crack.”

Each of the four categories is labeled with a color, which also signifies their difficulty level to regular players. Yellow is the easiest category, followed by green, blue and purple. However, the puzzles are rarely straightforward, using homophones and wordplay, among other techniques, to keep things interesting.

Explaining why the game has four difficulty levels, NYT puzzle editor Wyna Liu—the mastermind behind the Connections categories—said she toyed with different ways to make the game challenging.

“There would have to be a mix of categories for the game to feel challenging and satisfying,” she said in the NYT. “Some categories might be defined by their use of wordplay—palindromes, homophones, adding or dropping letters and words—rather than the literal meanings of the words on the cards.”

However, the familiarity of the words used, and how often they pop up in modern life, are also difficulty factors, although, less-common words aren’t only used in the harder categories. “Item overlap,” where one word can be linked to multiple categories, is another way Connections tests players.

“Caution was needed when including items that might stand out in the grid, since they would invite immediate scrutiny,” Liu explained.

If you still need a hand figuring out today’s Connections categories, then keep reading for our list of helpful hints.

‘Connections’ #351 Hints for Monday, May 27

Here are a few hints to help you solve today’s Connections puzzle.

Yellow: You have the power to choose.

Green: Train your pup.

Blue: Hit the right note.

Purple: ___ A kind of metal.

‘Connections’ #351 Answers for Monday, May 27

Here are the answers for today’s Connections categories.

Yellow Answer: agency in decision making

Yellow Words: Choice, say, vote, voice.

Green Answer: dog commands

Green Words: Down, heel, shake, speak.

Blue Answer: kinds of notes.

Blue Words: Flat, natural, quarter, whole.

Purple Answer: ___ iron.

Purple Words: Pump, steam, tire, waffle.

How many did you get right? Don’t worry if you struggled with today’s categories. Connections resets at midnight in your time zone, so you can try again tomorrow.