Connections was invented by game masters at The New York Times who were tasked with developing a new puzzle every day for the newspaper’s website.
They put their heads together in an annual brainstorming session and Connections was born in the year 2021.
The daily task of working on the hit puzzle is Wyna Liu, who revealed Newsweek how she invents four new categories every day.
She creates the seven daily games herself each week from ideas she draws from her daily life experiences. To keep her inspiration organized, Liu keeps a neat spreadsheet of her topic or word ideas, but a notebook is always handy in case inspiration strikes.
“Every board has to be made from scratch,” she said, explaining that when she sits down to build the week’s games, she consults her notebook and spreadsheet, which functions like a “digital sketchpad.”
“I usually don’t know where a board is going. It takes a really long time to fake things and try different angles.”
New York Times
How to play “Connections”
This puzzle requires players to classify 16 words into four categories based on their association. For example, one game involved linking the words “clear,” “earn,” “make,” and “net,” all of which fell into the category “take home, as income.”
Instructions on how to play the game are below. Clues and answers to Thursday’s puzzle are towards the end of the article, so scroll carefully.
Each of the four categories is marked with a color that also indicates its level of difficulty. Yellow is the easiest category, followed by green, blue, and then purple. The puzzles are rarely easy, however, instead using homophones and wordplay, among other things, to keep things interesting.
The connecting themes can come from a variety of categories – from Halloween costumes to music genres.
When all four words in each sentence are placed correctly, those words are removed from the board. Each incorrect guess counts toward the error count. Up to four errors can be made before the game is over.
Players can shuffle and rearrange the board to make guessing the connections easier. To make things a little more difficult, sometimes a word can belong to more than one category – but there is only one correct answer.
‘Connections’ #431 Notes for Thursday, August 15
Newsweek is here with some tips to help you make today’s Connections Categories.
Yellow: These words mean range.
Green: This could mean the spouse.
Blue: Casual names for some popular beers.
Purple: Words that follow another three-letter word that begins with “p.”
“Connections” No. 431 – Answers for Thursday, August 15
Yellow category: WIDE
Yellow words: scope, reach, range
Green Category: OTHER HALF
Green words: complement, match, buddy, partner
Blue Category: BEERS, FAMILY
Blue words: Bud, Natty, Sierra, Stella
Purple Category: WORDS AFTER “NUMBERS”
Purple words: Check, dirt, buddy, phone
Well, that was fun! Did you find the answer? If so, congratulations, but please don’t let it put you off playing if you don’t. Practice makes perfect, and the next Connections The puzzle will be released on Friday.
Connections will be published at midnight in your local time zone and Newsweek I’ll be back tomorrow with another round of tips and hints.
If you can’t wait, why not try these other popular online word puzzle games?
