Unlock Insights with NYTimes’ May 24 Connections Challenge (Issue #348) Answer Key!

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 348th Connections game to get you started:

• Yellow: Things to get rid of liquid.
• Green: Emotional food words.
• Blue: Make an omelette or intimidate someone with your hands.
• Purple: There is a word that follows this group.

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

• Yellow: Conduits for Water Removal
• Green: Food Products Associated with Sentimentality
• Blue: Things to Crack
• Purple: ____ Change

Today’s NYT Connections Answers

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Conduits for Water Removal (Yellow):

Drain, Duct, Pipe, Sewer

Food Products Associated with Sentimentality (Green):

Cheese, Corn, Sap, Schmaltz

Things to Crack (Blue):

Egg, Knuckles, Smile, Window

____ Change (Purple):

Chump, Climate, Loose, Sea

How Did We Solve This Connections Game?

May 24th was a pretty normal game.

The first word I started with was Cheese for no other reason than that cheese is awesome. Cheese can be a verb or a noun, or a figure of speech meaning “overly sentimental” when it is used as “cheesy.” Plenty of the words are food related, but egg, corn, cheese, and schmaltz aren’t a combination you hear about a lot, so it seems unlikely they’re in a group. On the other hand, corny, sappy, and schmaltz can all mean “sentimental.” Cheese, corn, sap, and schmaltz were in the Green group, “Food Products Associated with Sentimentality.”

Next I looked at the word duct. A duct is used to move air or water, and drains, pipes, and sewers are all used to move water, too. Together, those words were in the Yellow group, which was “Conduits for Water Removal.”

I knew Purple might be missing a word, so I started testing words at the beginning and ends of the remaining words. Eventually, I landed on “change.” It fits behind chump, climate, loose, and sea. Purple was just “____ Change.”

That left egg, knuckles, smiles, and window. In isolation, it became a bit easier to see that they’re all things you can crack, and in the case of windows, it can mean two entirely different things. Blue was “Things to Crack.”

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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.