I can't work out whether Thursday's Connections puzzle is difficult or not. I found it quite easy – but then again I also solved it half by accident, so who knows… If you do get stuck, you can scroll down for my hints. If you don't, you'll find my commentary further down too.
What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Wordle hints and answers, Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.
Marc is TechRadar’s Global Editor in Chief and has been obsessed with Wordle and its ilk for more than two years. He's authored dozens of articles on the game for TechRadar, including a daily today's Wordle answer column and a detailed analysis of the most common letters in Wordle in every position. He's also played every Wordle ever and only lost once and yes, he takes it all too seriously.
NYT Connections today (game #361) - today's words
Today's NYT Connections words are…
- MARBLE
- BASEBALL
- DRIVE
- WILD
- REVERSE
- PUSH
- GYM
- PARK
- PROMPT
- PEA
- DRAW
- DUGOUT
- SKIP
- PROPEL
- GRAPEFRUIT
- COURTROOM
NYT Connections today (game #361) - hint #1 - group hints
What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?
- Yellow: Encourage to do
- Green: From a popular family game
- Blue: Look at the shapes
- Purple: You could sit here
Need more clues?
We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…
NYT Connections today (game #361) - hint #2 - group answers
What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: MOVE TO ACTION
- GREEN: UNO CARDS
- BLUE: HAIL SIZE COMPARISONS
- PURPLE: PLACES WITH BENCHES
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Connections today (game #361) - the answers
The answers to today's Connections, game #361, are…
- YELLOW: MOVE TO ACTION DRIVE, PROMPT, PROPEL, PUSH
- GREEN: UNO CARDS DRAW, REVERSE, SKIP, WILD
- BLUE: HAIL SIZE COMPARISONS BASEBALL, GRAPEFRUIT, MARBLE, PEA
- PURPLE: PLACES WITH BENCHES COURTROOM, DUGOUT, GYM, PARK
- My rating: Easy
- My score: Perfect
This was a weird one. I somehow solved blue before yellow, and purple before green. In fact, I didn't really solve green at all – I got it by default, but didn't know what the answer was. In fact, I didn't know what the answer was to any of them over than the yellow MOVE TO ACTION.
Let's start at the beginning. I quickly spotted – as I'm sure many people did – that BASEBALL, PEA, GRAPEFRUIT and MARBLE are all round. It never occurred to me that the connection was HAIL SIZE COMPARISONS, but it was a pretty obvious link between them anyway, so I played it and got it right.
Next, I solved the yellow MOVE TO ACTION group – which was the only one where I knew why it was a group. That left two more. COURTOOM, DUGOUT, GYM and PARK were all places, so it seemed like they might well be connected, though again I didn't know why. But I played it anyway and got the purple one correct. And ironically, green was one that I had no idea – because I've never played Uno. As I said, it was a weird one…
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Wednesday, 5 June, game #360)
- YELLOW: “AWESOME!” COOL, NICE, SICK, SWEET
- GREEN: VARIETY KIND, SORT, STYLE, TYPE
- BLUE: GIST DRIFT, IDEA, MESSAGE, POINT
- PURPLE: FRIED APPETIZER, INFORMALLY RING, STICK, TENDER, WING
What is NYT Connections?
NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.
On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.
It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.
It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
