Today’s Connections puzzle favors how words are organized based on larger concepts, asking you to identify everything that could “fit” into a broader idea. I found that this led to a unique puzzle, with plenty of tricks to fool you. Without the right clues, you can easily make a mistake as you search for ways to organize the right answers together.
Since you only have four chances to make a mistake, you have a limited margin of error for today’s puzzle. One of the easiest ways to get a head start is to visualize how each word appears in the world beyond its definition. Similar to the NYT Vertex puzzles, getting a good picture of what you’re working with will help you recognize patterns in today’s Connections.
Today’s Connections Category Hints
May 20 #709
I solved today’s puzzle by imagining where I would find different words, either physically in the world or within different contexts. For example, when I looked at the word DREW, I imagined it to either by the past tense of “draw” or someone’s name. When I compared it to other words, there were no similar meanings to drawing something, so I narrowed it down to a name that fit into one category.
Those struggling to organize every word in today’s puzzle into categories can follow these clues to get started:
- One category is about things you use to keep notes on very important information.
- One category is about things you might see in a building designed to host animals and store food.
- One category is about things describing fictional people who can solve any mystery.
- One category is about things related to words you would use before the phrase for what you sleep on.
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If you want to go all out with some of your clue-searching, you should look at the category names to get some extra help. There are also spoilers for each category if you find yourself needing to solve a single category to finish up.
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ACCOUNT BOOK |
|
SEEN IN A BARN |
|
DETECTIVES OF KID-LIT |
|
WORDS BEFORE “BED” |
Today’s Connections Answers
May 20 #709
Yellow Answers: Revealed & Explained
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ACCOUNT BOOK |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
|
LEDGER |
LOG |
RECORD |
REGISTER |
This part of the puzzle was easier for me, as I recognized that LOG referred to a RECORD of information you REGISTER somewhere important. From there, the word LEDGER was a natural fit into this section of the puzzle. None of the other phrases seem to relate to these terms, even if you sort them by their base definitions without much context.
Green Answers: Revealed & Explained
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SEEN IN A BARN |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
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BALE |
HORSE |
PITCHFORK |
TROUGH |
The word TROUGH stood out to me the most in this section of the puzzle, as I could only envision it as a source for farm animals to eat or drink from. With that logic, I saw that a HORSE and PITCHFORK are both things I would find at a farm too, especially the former if a TROUGH was being used. After some confusion in another category, I threw in BALE for a hay bale to find the right answer.
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Blue Answers: Revealed & Explained
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DETECTIVES OF KID-LIT |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
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BROWN |
DREW |
HARDY |
HOLMES |
This category gave me a lot of trouble at first, as I envisioned HARDY and BALE for Tom Hardy and Christian Bale, two famous actors. However, HOLMES gave me pause, not because it couldn’t be another famous actor, but how it would mainly be used to reference a fictional character. It took me a minute to realize that HOLMES meant Sherlock Holmes, with HARDY referencing the Hardy Boys, DREW for Nancy Drew, and Father BROWN all coming together as famous fictional detectives.
Purple Answers: Revealed & Explained
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WORDS BEFORE “BED” |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
|
CANOPY |
DAY |
MURPHY |
WATER |
These words in the puzzle were hard to put together, as they seem to have no relation on the surface. After solving other categories though, I noticed that CANOPY and WATER both could refer to a canopy bed and a waterbed, two unrelated topics that are structured the same grammatically. Once those words were organized, DAY for day bed and MURPHY for Murphy bed were much easier to fit into this category’s right answer.
Other Games Like Connections
If you are looking for another puzzle to play, check out one of the ones in the box below.
Connections
- Released
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June 12, 2023
- ESRB
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e
- Developer(s)
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The New York Times Company
- Publisher(s)
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The New York Times Company
