If you're struggling with today's Connections puzzle—or if this is your first time playing the word game—Newsweek has some clues as well as the answers.
Launched by The New York Times in the summer of 2023, Connections is now the news outlet's second-most-played game after Wordle. While also word-based, Connections challenges players to uncover threads connecting a series of words.
Instructions on how to play the game are below. Clues and the answers for today's puzzle are toward the end of the article.
How To Play 'Connections'
Connections tasks players with grouping 16 words into four categories based on association. For example, Wednesday's game linked the movie titles Chinatown, Dumbo, Manhattan and Wall Street under the category "Places in New York."
Each of the four categories is labeled with a color, which also signifies their difficulty level. 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.
The uniting themes span a wide range of topics, from movie franchises to body parts. Once you have figured out one group, those words are removed from the grid. However, players only get four guesses. Each incorrect guess adds to your mistake tally, and after four wrong answers, it's game over.
Connections also has a shuffle button, which will mix up where the words appear on the screen to help players who might be stuck.
Explaining why the game has four difficulty levels, NYT puzzle editor Wyna Liu said she toyed with different ways to make Connections more of a challenge.
"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.
The answers for today's Connections puzzle will be revealed at the end of this article, so scroll with caution if you want to work them out yourself.
'Connections' #368 Clues for Thursday, June 13
Newsweek has some hints to help you figure out today's Connections categories.
Yellow: These words are associated with admiring or valuing.
Green: Each of these answers are words linked to victory.
Blue: For these answers, think of trinkets associated with elections.
Purple: These words are transformed when they follow another beginning with "C."
'Connections' #368 Answers for Thursday, June 13
Yellow Category: ENJOY
Yellow Words: Appreciate, Dig, Fancy, Like
Green Category: BLOCKBUSTER
Green Words: Hit, Sensation, Smash, Success
Blue Category: CAMPAIGN SWAG
Blue Words: Button, Hat, Shirt, Sticker
Purple Category: WORDS AFTER "COPY"
Purple Words: Cat, Editor, Paste, That
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.
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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