'Connections' January 3: Hints and answers for puzzle #572

If one of your New Year's resolutions was to play more word games, then Newsweek is here to lend a helping hand.

Every day we provide readers with the best hints and tips to solve Connections, one of The New York Times' most popular games.

It was released in 2023 and quickly became a huge hit, thanks to its challenging but fun premise.

How to Play 'Connections'

The categories vary in difficulty from yellow to green to blue to purple, with yellow considered the easiest category and purple the trickiest.

For example, a recent game linked the words "Braid," "Bun," "Pony" and "Twist" under "Ways to wear your hair up" in the blue category.

Once you have selected four words, you click the "submit" button. If your choices match a category, they will appear in the category color and disappear from the grid. If they are incorrect, however, they will remain gray and stay on the board.

If you are stuck, try selecting the "shuffle" button to move the words to a different place on the grid.

Players have up to four chances to guess incorrectly before the game ends. There's no time constraint, so no need to rush things.

"My top advice is to hold off on guessing as long as you can," Wyna Liu, the game's editor at The New York Times, previously told Newsweek.

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

'Connections' #572 Clues for Friday, January 3

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

Yellow: Parts of your body that are below the ankle.

Green: Names for a monetary value that equals 100 cents.

Blue: Different kinds of fungi.

Purple: Words that follow a cooking receptacle that you might boil water in.

'Connections' #572 Answers for Friday, January 3

Yellow Category: Parts of a foot

Yellow Words: Arch, Ball, Heel, Sole

Green Category: One dollar

Green Words: Single, Buck, Clam, Smacker

Blue Category: Kinds of mushrooms

Blue Words: Button, Morel, Oyster, Trumpet

Purple Category: Pot _____

Purple Words: Belly, Hole, Luck, Sticker

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

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

In the meantime, you could try your hand at Wordle—another popular game from The New York Times for which Newsweek also provides daily hints.