NYT ‘Connections’ Hints June 1: Clues and Answers for Puzzle #356

Connections, a New York Times daily game, has built a large fan base, with players returning each day to play it. The brainteaser is now coming up to its first full year since release in June 2023, with fewer than 10 days to go until it marks its first birthday.

Connections is easy to play. Each puzzle consists of 16 words, separated into four categories. Players must identify the common thread between each category: yellow, green, blue, and purple. For example, a previous category described commands you might give to a dog: down, heel, shake and speak.

Players can sometimes be fooled by the fact that words can often fit into two categories, adding a layer of difficulty to the daily brainteaser. However, each group must consist of four unique words, with no repeats whatsoever. The difficulty increases according to color, with yellow being the most straightforward, followed by green, then blue and purple, which is the hardest.

You don’t know which category corresponds with which color until you’ve solved it. If need be, players can shuffle to rearrange the board if they want to try to make the process of guessing a little easier.

The game’s editor, Wyna Liu of The New York Times, said there are varying levels of difficulty between the categories given each day. “Some categories might be defined by their use of wordplay—palindromes, homophones, adding or dropping letters and words —rather than the literal meanings of the words on the cards. I saw three areas of potential difficulty that could be adjusted: the familiarity of the words, the ambiguity of their categorization and the variety of the wordplay,” she said.

Below are some handy tips to help you keep your Connections winning streak—but do be warned: scroll with caution if you want to figure out the answers for yourself.

‘Connections’ #356 Clues for Saturday, June 1

Yellow: An instruction given by you or another person, signaling that time is of the essence.

Green: You might see or experience these while on a boat or at the beach.

Blue: Actions you would do at the gym or at home, providing you have the right equipment.

Purple: Words that sound like other words—in this case, of famous thinkers.

‘Connections’ #356 Answers for Saturday, June 1

Yellow category: “DON’T DELAY!”

Yellow words: hurry, now, pronto, stat

Green: OCEAN PHENOMENA

Green words: current, drift, tide, wave

Blue: DUMBBELL EXERCISES

Blue words: curl, fly, press, row

Purple: PHILOSOPHER HOMOPHONES

Purple words: locks, marks, pane, rustle

Did you guess the answers correctly? If so, congratulations. If not, there will be another opportunity to crack the puzzle tomorrow.

Connections is released at midnight in your local time zone. Newsweek will be back with another round of hints and tips for each new game.