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Today’s NYT ‘Connections’ Hints And Answers For Tuesday, May 21

ByKris Holt

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Today’s NYT ‘Connections’ Hints And Answers For Tuesday, May 21

ByKris Holt,

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Kris Holt is a writer who covers video games and word games.
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May 20, 2024, 05:30pm EDT
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Find the links between the words to win today's game of Connections.

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Looking for Monday’s Connections hints and answers? You can find them here:

ForbesToday's NYT 'Connections' Hints And Answers For Monday, May 20By Kris Holt

Hey, everyone! I hope your week’s off to a great start. I’ve been working on some financial planning the last few days, so my head is filled with numbers. I’m happy to be focusing on words for a little bit.

Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers are coming right up.

How To Play Connections

In Connections, 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 horror movie franchises, a type of verb or rappers.

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.

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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 typically the hardest one to deduce. The purple group often involves wordplay, so bear that in mind.

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.

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:

  • PINCH
  • CHALK
  • MATCH
  • DEAL
  • RACK
  • TOUCH
  • BUY
  • STEAL
  • FACE
  • VALUE
  • POCKET
  • BALL
  • DASH
  • CUE
  • MAC
  • BIT

And the hints for today’s groups are:

  • Yellow group — just a little
  • Green group — great find in a sale
  • Blue group — seen during the Mosconi Cup
  • Purple group — not in my ____, and not things you’d necessarily read

What Are Today’s Connections Groups?

Need some extra help?

Be warned: we’re starting to get into spoiler territory.

Today’s groups are...

  • Yellow group — smidgen
  • Green group — bargain
  • Blue group — billiards equipment
  • Purple group — ____ book (that's not a book)

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 — smidgen (BIT, DASH, PINCH, TOUCH)
  • Green group — bargain (BUY, DEAL, STEAL, VALUE)
  • Blue group — billiards equipment (BALL, CHALK, CUE, RACK)
  • Purple group — ____ book (that's not a book) (FACE, MAC, MATCH, POCKET)

Drat, my three-day winning streak is over, just like that.

I got the blues right away and made an error with the greens by including MATCH instead of BUY at first. BUY didn’t quite fit the rest of the group to me at first, but then it made more sense once I remembered expressions like “great buy.”

It was all downhill after that though. I got it into my head that PINCH and TOUCH were touchscreen inputs and that DASH somehow went with them. Since I had thrre out of the four correct for a group, I kept going with that strategy with random guesses even though none of the other words really fit what I had in mind. If this was a red herring, I fell for it completely.

That’s all there is to it for today’s Connections clues and answers. Be sure to check my blog for hints and the solution for Wednesday’s game if you need them.

P.S. I'm rounding out my "British artists Kris listened to a lot while growing up" (I never did find a catchier name for it) series with one that came to prominence in my teens. Busted are essentially a pop-punk boy band and I think they're just great. A friend and I accompanied my sister and her friend to one of their shows two hours from where we lived, and we all had an excellent time.

This is my favorite of theirs. It's catchy and has some really nice guitar and bass work. I dearly love Charlie Simpson's overly enthusiastic scream of "go!" before the second chorus. I think the lyrics are played more for laughs and cheekiness rather than to be leery. It's all very silly and fun.

I’ll keep dropping daily recommendations at the end of this column, whether it’s a song or something else, just because I enjoy it. I hope you do too.

I’m always open to suggestions for a tune, movie, film, game, travel destination, nugget of life advice or what have you to recommend to everyone. Feel free to send me an email with your ideas!

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out some of my other work.
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