"Connections" December 12: Hints and answers for game #550

Connections has continued to be a firm favorite among puzzle fans, having hit the mobile game scene over a year ago.

In the wake of Wordle's phenomenal success—a game that captivated millions and was acquired by The New York Times in early 2022—the newspaper introduced Connections in 2023.

If you are not familiar with Connections, this article will guide you through the basics of playing the game, share tips for sharpening your puzzle-solving abilities, and provide hints for today's challenge. If you want to play without any spoilers, be warned, as Thursday's answers are further down this page.

How To Play 'Connections'

Connections tasks players with grouping 16 words into four categories based on association.

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 players challenged.

"My best piece advice is to wait as long as you can before guessing," Wyna Liu, who created Connections, said in an interview with Newsweek.

"You may see the board and have completely identified the category, seeing five words that could belong in that category," Liu said.

"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 waste a turn.

By trying to find another category first, it is likely to remove the words that could belong to more than one group, ultimately meaning there is less chance of making a mistake.

'Connections' #550 Clues for Thursday, December 12

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

Yellow: Words that all relate to a certain letter in the alphabet.

Green: This category relates to objects that share a physical feature that can also be found in one's mouth.

Blue: Words that are a softer form of cursing.

Purple: These answers are all part of a river.

'Connections' #550 Answers for Thursday, December 12

Yellow Category: THINGS THAT SOUND LIKE "T"

Yellow Words: Tea, Tee (Golf), Tee (Shirt), Ti (Musical Note)

Green Category: OBJECTS WITH TEETH

Green Words: Comb, Gear, Saw, Zipper

Blue Category: MILD OATHS

Blue Words: Fudge, Geez, Nuts, Rats

Purple Category: PARTS OF A RIVER

Purple Words: Bank, Bed, Delta, Mouth

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.

In the meantime, you could try your hand at Wordle, for which Newsweek also provides daily hints.