'Connections' December 31: Hints and answers for puzzle #569

It's the last day of the year! Ensure you end 2024 on a winning note—at least when it comes to today's Connections puzzle—with the help of Newsweek's handy hints.

The popular brainteaser was launched by The New York Times in June 2023 and has gone on to become the newspaper's second-most played game behind Wordle, another word-based puzzle.

Connections challenges players to uncover threads connecting a series of words. Instructions on how to play the game are below. Clues and the answers for today's puzzle are toward the end of the article.

How to Play 'Connections'

Connections tasks players with grouping 16 words into four categories based on association. For example, the December 30th game linked the words "Club," "Hero," "Melt" and "Wrap" under the category "Lunch Orders."

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. The puzzles are rarely straightforward, using homophones and wordplay, among other techniques, to keep players challenged.

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.

If stuck, players can hit the shuffle button, which will mix up where the words appear on the screen.

Wyna Liu, a crossword editor at The New York Times who developed Connections, told Newsweek about her recommended tips for playing the game.

"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," Liu continued. "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."

"Don't do what I do, which is 'rage solve,'" Liu said.

The answers for today's Connections puzzle will be revealed at the end of this article, so scroll with caution if you want to work them out yourself.

'Connections' #569 Clues for Tuesday, December 31

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

Yellow: These words can be used to describe rapid movement.

Green: Each of these answers is a term that could be used to describe having fun.

Blue: For these answers, think of how you might address someone in writing.

Purple: These answers become popular terms when following the word "name."

'Connections' #569 Answers for Tuesday, December 31

Yellow Category: MOVE QUICKLY

Yellow Words: Bolt, Dart, Dash, Fly

Green Category: FUN TIME

Green Words: Ball, Blast, Kick, Thrill

Blue Category: WORDS BEFORE AN ADDRESSEE

Blue Words: Attention, Dear, For, To

Purple Category: NAME ___

Purple Words: Brand, Drop, Game, Names

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.