Clues And Answers For Today’s Game

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 Monday:
Hey there, Connectors! I hope your week is off to an excellent start.
I finally got around to watching Andor. I’m only four or so episodes in and I’m really enjoying it so far. It’s really cool to finally have a Star Wars series that’s for people who have spent decades growing up with the franchise.
Nemik, one of the characters who works with Cassian Andor to carry out a mission that targets the Empire, said something in one of these episodes that’s stuck with me:
We’ve grown reliant on Imperial tech and we’ve made ourselves vulnerable. There’s a growing list of things we’ve known and forgotten, things they’ve pushed us to forget. Things like freedom.
[…] It’s so confusing, isn’t it? So much going wrong, so much to say and all of it happening so quickly. The pace of oppression outstrips our ability to understand it. That is the real trick of the Imperial thought machine. It’s easier to hide behind 40 atrocities than a single incident.
But they have a fight on their hands, don’t they? Our elemental rights are such a simple thing to hold. They will have to shake the galaxy awfully hard to loosen our grip.
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Although the episode premiered in 2022, that quote aptly captures this moment in time, in both technology and the broader culture. With more and more people increasingly relying on generative AI to carry their mental load, our collective capacity for critical thinking will surely be diminished to a harmful degree. I feel that speech also quite accurately reflects the state of the world as a whole at the minute, while quite rightly pointing out that society does not have to simply accept that reality.
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 Tuesday, May 27 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…
- CAROUSEL
- CANDELABRA
- COASTER
- CLOCK
- SLIDE
- GATE
- RECORD
- TEACUP
- BEAST
- PICK
- LOUNGE
- PANCAKE
- STRUM
- FRISBEE
- BEND
- FOOD COURT
And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:
- Yellow group — like a discus or plate
- Green group — the travelators are the best part
- Blue group — shred away
- Purple group — it’s a tale old as time…
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 — round flat things
- Green group — airport features
- Blue group — guitar playing techniques
- Purple group — what characters were transformed into in The Beauty and the Beast
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 — round flat things (COASTER, FRISBEE, PANCAKE, RECORD)
- Green group — airport features (CAROUSEL, FOOD COURT, GATE, LOUNGE)
- Blue group — guitar playing techniques (BEND, PICK, SLIDE, STRUM)
- Purple group — what characters were transformed into in The Beauty and the Beast (BEAST, CANDELABRA, CLOCK, TEACUP)
I’m getting closer to a 100-game streak. That’s number 91 in the books with a perfect game. Here’s how I fared:
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩
STRUM stood out to me immediately, since there aren’t too many applications for that word. As such, I got the blues pretty quickly.
I’m planning to buy an electric guitar in a few months once I’ve got enough set aside. I haven’t had one in over a decade, but I miss playing fat riffs, y’know? I’ve currently got my eye on a Dan Donegan Ultra, but I still very much want a proper Gibson Les Paul. Decisions, decisions…
CANDELABRA and BEAST landed next to each other after that, which made the purples clear. I haven’t seen that movie in a long time. I absolutely loved it as a kid, so I guess I know what I’m doing when I next have a spare 90 minutes.
The yellows were then pretty clear to me. I squared those away.
I wasn’t too sure about the green connection until it clicked with GATE. One of the best decisions I’ve made over the last few years is to use a credit card that offers free airport LOUNGE access. Those places can be really nice! I wouldn’t necessarily have linked FOOD COURT with an airport, though.
As for red herrings, CAROUSEL, COASTER, FOOD COURT and TEACUP might have gone together as a group of theme park elements.
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 Wednesday’s game if you need them.
P.S. I’m doing a ska punk theme week with my recommendations, running until Saturday. I don’t typically care for genres, but this one’s a lot of fun.
There’s a long tradition of punk covers of popular songs (think Me First and the Gimme Gimmes). One of the greatest ska punk covers is the Reel Big Fish version of the all-time great “Take On Me” by A-Ha. RBF’s cover is nothing to sniff at. It’s a blast:
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 new newsletter, Pastimes.