NYT ‘Connections’ Hints June 5: Answers and Clues for Game #360

If you’re struggling with today’s Connections, Newsweek is here to take out some of the guesswork.

The puzzle has built a large fan base since it was released on June 12, 2023 and is now coming up to its first full year since it went public. Connections is so popular, it is now The New York Times‘ second-most-played game after Wordle.

Instructions on how to play the game are below. If you want to solve the puzzle yourself be careful when scrolling, as the answers for today’s puzzle are toward the end of the article.

How To Play ‘Connections’

The brainteaser tasks players with grouping 16 words into four categories based on association. For example, Tuesday’s game linked the words “clear,” “earn,” “make” and “net” which all came under the category “take home, as income.”

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 things interesting.

The uniting themes span a wide range of topics and once you have figured out one group, those words are removed from the grid. However, players get only four guesses. Each incorrect guess adds to your mistake tally, and after four wrong answers, it’s game over.

Connections also has a shuffle button, which will mix up where the words appear on the screen to help players who might be stuck.

Explaining why the game has four difficulty levels, NYT puzzle editor Wyna Liu said she toyed with different ways to make the game challenging.

“There would have to be a mix of categories for the game to feel challenging and satisfying,” she said in the NYT. “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.”

However, the familiarity of the words used, and how often they pop up in modern life, are also difficulty factors, although, less-common words aren’t only used in the harder categories. “Item overlap,” where one word can be linked to multiple categories, is another way Connections tests players.

“Caution was needed when including items that might stand out in the grid, since they would invite immediate scrutiny,” Liu explained.

‘Connections’ #360 Clues for Wednesday, June 5

Newsweek has some hints to help you figure out today’s Connections categories.

Yellow: Often used when something is considered “cool.”

Green: Words to describe different things from the same category.

Blue: Understanding the meaning of something.

Purple: Fried food.

‘Connections’ #360 Answers for Wednesday, June 5

Yellow Category: “AWESOME!”

Yellow Words: Cool, Nice, Sick, Sweet.

Green Category: VARIETY

Green Words: Kind, Sort, Style, Type.

Blue Category: GIST

Blue Words: Drift, Idea, Message, Point

Purple Category: FRIED APPETIZER, INFORMALLY

Purple Words: Ring, Stick, Tender, Wing

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. If you’re looking for another word-based game to play in the meantime, why not give Wordle a try?