Today’s Connections hints

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Let’s play.

Green group hint: A VIP.

Blue group hint: Mona Lisa is another one.

Purple group hint: Both words are wrong.

Today’s Connections answers

Yellow group: Classic children’s games.

Green group: Important person.

Blue group: Famous paintings.

Purple group: Double misnomers (neither word is an accurate description).

CNET publishes daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is classic children’s games.

The four answers are duck duck goose, hot potato, leapfrog and musical chairs.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is important person.

The four answers are alpha dog, big cheese, heavyweight and top banana.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is famous paintings.

The four answers are American Gothic, Campbell’s Soup Can, Sunflowers and The Scream.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is double misnomers (neither word is an accurate description).

The four answers are English horn, Grape-Nuts, mantis shrimp and sweetbread.

How to play Connections

In Connections, you look at a grid of 16 words and pick four words that have a connection to one another. You do this four times until all 16 words in the puzzle are grouped. The tough part is that Times puzzle editor Wyna Liu chooses words that could fit in multiple groups. The obvious guess — Hey, those are four animals! — is almost always going to be wrong. I’ve compiled my favorite tips for Connections if you need a boost.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of “Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the ’70s and ’80s,” as well as “The Totally Sweet ’90s.” She’s been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She’s Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she’ll be first in line.

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