Connections quickly became an online sensation upon its release The New York Times in June 2023 – and it remains as popular as ever.

The word puzzle is now the news agency’s second most played game Wordle. Connections challenges players to uncover threads that connect a series of words.

Instructions on how to play the game can be found below. You can find clues and answers for today’s puzzle at the end of the article.

How to play “Connections.”

Connections tasks players with dividing 16 words into four categories based on association. For example, in Thursday’s game, the words “bookend,” “earbuds,” “ski,” and “sock” were linked in the “Items Sold in Pairs” category.

Each of the four categories is marked with a color, which also indicates the level of difficulty. Yellow is the easiest category, followed by green, blue and purple. The puzzles are rarely easy and use homophones and puns, among other things, to challenge players.

The familiarity of the words used and how often they appear in modern life are also difficulty factors, although less common words are not only used in the more difficult categories. Another possibility is “element overlap,” where a word can be linked to multiple categories Connections tests players.

If players get stuck, they can press the shuffle button, which shuffles the words where they appear on the screen.

Wyna Liu, crossword editor at The New York Times which has developed Connectionstold Newsweek about their recommended tips for playing the game.

“My best advice is to wait as long as possible before guessing,” she said.

“You may see the board and have fully identified the category by seeing five words that could belong in that category,” she continued. “Don’t try to guess the four words in this category, because even though you know what the fifth element is, you don’t know which of the four it may not be,” which would ultimately waste a turn.

“Don’t do what I do, which is ‘getting rid of anger,'” Liu said.

The answers for today Connections The mystery is revealed at the end of this article. So scroll carefully if you want to solve it yourself.

“Connections” #481 Notes for Friday, October 4th

Newsweek has some clues to help you figure out today Connections Categories.

Yellow: These words can be used to describe an inward collapse.

Green: Each of these answers represents a minimal measurement.

Blue: Think of classic cartoon characters.

Purple: These words describe an appointment, an excursion or an expectation.

“Connections” #481 answers for Friday, October 4th

Yellow Category: CONCAVITY

Yellow words: dent, dimple, ding, divot

Green Category: SMALL QUANTITY

Green words: Dab, dash, dollop, drop

Blue category: DISNEY CHARACTERS

Blue words: Daisy, Dale, Doc, Dory

Purple Category: ___ DATE

Purple words: Delivery, Dinner, Dream, Due

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

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