“Connections” December 12: Hints and answers for game #550

December 12, 2024 / Kevin harson /

Connections has continued to be a firm favorite among puzzle fans, having hit the mobile game scene over a year ago.

In the wake of Wordle‘s phenomenal success—a game that captivated millions and was acquired by The New York Times in early 2022—the newspaper introduced Connections in 2023.

If you are not familiar with Connections, this article will guide you through the basics of playing the game, share tips for sharpening your puzzle-solving abilities, and provide hints for today’s challenge. If you want to play without any spoilers, be warned, as Thursday’s answers are further down this page.

How To Play ‘Connections’

Connections tasks players with grouping 16 words into four categories based on association.

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 players challenged.

A woman holds a smartphone in her hands, standing isolated against a blue background. Newsweek has put together some tips for today’s “Connections” puzzle.

Davidovici/Getty Images

“My best piece advice is to wait as long as you can before guessing,” Wyna Liu, who created Connections, said in an interview with Newsweek.

“You may see the board and have completely identified the category, seeing five words that could belong in that category,” Liu said.

“Don’t try to guess the four words in that category, because, even though you know what the fifth member is, you won’t know which of the four it might not be,” which would waste a turn.

By trying to find another category first, it is likely to remove the words that could belong to more than one group, ultimately meaning there is less chance of making a mistake.