Everyone has their own tactics when it comes to solving Connections.
The daily word game on the New York Times games website and app requires play to group four groups of words together to unveil their uniting theme.
Connections editor Wyna Liu has previously advised that if you find five words that might fit into a category, it’s often best to try categorizing a different group first. This strategy can help you figure out where the words truly belong by process of elimination.
“My best piece of advice is to wait as long as you can before guessing,” she said. “You may see the board and have completely identified the category, seeing five words that could belong in that category,” she told Newsweek in June.
“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 ultimately waste a turn.”
Liu also told the NYT that the words are placed on the board deliberately at the beginning of a game, so it is worth shuffling the pieces before getting stuck in trying to solve it.
The answers for Friday’s Connections puzzle will be revealed at the end of this article, so scroll with caution if you want to work them out yourself. But before that let us explain how to play the word game.
How to Play ‘Connections’
The brainteaser tasks players with grouping 16 words into four categories based on association. For example, one game linked the words “clear,” “earn,” “make” and “net,” which all came under the category “take home, as income.”
Instructions on how to play the game are below. Clues and the answers for Thursday’s puzzle are toward the end of the article, so scroll with caution.
Each of the four categories is labeled with a color, which also signifies the difficulty level. Yellow is the easiest category, followed by green, blue and then purple. However, the puzzles are rarely straightforward, using homophones and wordplay, among other techniques, to keep things interesting.
The uniting themes can come from a broad range of categories—anything from Halloween costumes to music genres.
If all four words are correctly placed into each set, those words will be removed from the board. Each incorrect guess counts toward the mistake tally. Up to four errors can be made before it is game over.
Connections #439 Clues for Friday, August 23
Newsweek is here with some hints to help you identify Friday’s Connections categories:
- Yellow: Words and images are shown on these.
- Green: Performers like Dita Von Teese don these.
- Blue: Colors that are often described as bland.
- Purple: Words that have different pronunciation or meaning.
New York Times
Connections #439 Answers for Friday, August 23
Yellow Category: VISUAL INTERFACE
Yellow Words: Monitor, Display, Screen, Terminal
Green Category: BURLESQUE WEAR
Green Words: Boa, Corset, Gloves, Fan
Blue Category: BEIGE SHADES
Blue Words: Buff, Cream, Fawn, Tan
Purple Category: LANGUAGE HOMOPHONES
Purple Words: Bask, Check, Finish, Tie
We hope this puzzle brought you a mix of challenge and enjoyment. If you managed to solve it, great job! If not, don’t stress, each day brings a new chance to sharpen your skills. The next Connections puzzle will be available from the New York Times on Saturday, right at midnight in your local time zone. Check back with Newsweek for more tips and solutions. Happy puzzling!
