May 22: Today’s New York Times Insightful Clues & Solutions - Connecting the Dots with #346

Quick Links

• What Is Connections?
• Hints for Today’s Connections Groups
• Today’s NYT Connections Answers
• How Did We Solve This Connections Game?
• How Do You Guess Connections Groups?

Connections is a game from the New York Times that challenges you to find the association between words. It sounds easy, but it isn’t—Connections categories can be almost anything, and they’re usually quite specific. If you need a hand getting the answers, we’ve got you covered.

What Is Connections?

Connections is a game from the New York Times. The objective is simple: sort 16 words into groups of 4. Each group of words will be connected by some common idea or theme. That common element could be anything. We have seen everything from games that rely on the number of letters in the words to categories that require you to spot an extra letter at the end of the word. Sometimes they’re references to economics, other times they reference fairy tales. There is no telling what sort of association there will be between words.

Once you’re confident you understand the connection, select 4 words, then hit “Submit.” You have only four attempts in total, so don’t be too guess-happy.

Hints for Today’s Connections Groups

Here are a few hints for the 346th Connections game to get you started:

• Yellow: There is a song about these.
• Green: Slang for a vehicle.
• Blue: Things you’d do to shrimp, corn, or apples.
• Purple: Sounds an insect might make or excited talk.

If you still need help, the actual group names are:

• Yellow: Body Parts in “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”
• Green: Car, Informally
• Blue: Removes the Covering Of
• Purple: “Buzzy” Things

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Today’s NYT Connections Answers

Body Parts in “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” (Yellow):

Head, Knees, Shoulders, Toes

Car, Informally ​​​​​​​(Green):

Auto, Ride, Wheels, Whip

Removes the Covering Of​​​​​​​ (Blue):

Pares, Peels, Shells, Shucks

“Buzzy” Things​​​​​​​ (Purple):

Bees, Caffeine, Gossip, Intercoms

How Did We Solve This Connections Game?

May 22nd felt very easy.

Heads, shoulders, knees, and toes stuck out like a sore thumb. They’re the body parts listed in a famous kid’s tune. Yellow was “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.”

Auto immediately made me think of cars. Searching for related words turned up ride and wheels immediately, but the last word proved a little elusive. Whip is also a slang term for car, though not a particularly common one. Together, auto, ride, wheels, and whip were the Green group, “Car, Informally.”

Pares, peels, shells, and shucks are all verbs, and the other remaining words are not. That made me think they’re likely in a group. As it happens, they also all share a similar meaning. You pare a potato, peel a banana, shell shrimp (or nuts, or anything else with a shell), and you shuck corn. Those 4 words were Blue, “Removes the Covering Of.”

That left bees, caffine, gossip, and intercom. They made up the Purple group, which was “Buzzy Things.”

How Do You Guess Connections Groups?

There is no quick, reliable way to approach Connections like there is with Wordle, since Connections isn’t algorithmic. However, there are a few things to keep in mind that can help.

1. Look for similar parts of speech. Are some words verbs and others nouns? Are some adjectives? Try mentally grouping them based on those categories and see if any other patterns jump out at you.
2. Are the words synonyms? Sometimes categories will just be synonyms for a phrase, or very close to synonyms. Don’t rely too closely on this, though. Occasionally, Connections will deliberately throw in words that are sometimes synonyms to mislead you.
3. Try saying the words. Sometimes, saying the words helps. One puzzle we saw included the words go, rate, faster, clip, pace, speed, move, commute, and hurry—all of which are obviously related to the idea of motion. However, when you say them, it becomes a little more obvious that only four (go, move, hurry, faster) are things you’d actually say to prompt someone to get moving.
4. Expect the red herring . Connections usually has words that could be plausibly, yet incorrectly, grouped together. Take the words Bud, Corona, and Light, as an example. You might instinctively see those three words together and assume they’re lumped together in a category related to beer—but they weren’t.
5. Look for distinct words. If a word on your board doesn’t have multiple meanings or can really only be used in one context, try using that word as the basis for a category.
6. Shuffle the board. Sometimes, moving words around will help you look at them in new ways.

If you didn’t solve this one, don’t feel too bad—there’s always tomorrow! And those words may align with a topic you’re interested in, giving you a leg up on the competition.

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