‘Connections’ April 27: Hints and Answers for Puzzle #686

In 2023 the New York Times launched Connections, a new word-based game, which quickly picked up a dedicated following across the English speaking world.

This followed the success of Wordle, a game developed during coronavirus lockdown by New York-based software developer Josh Wardle, which he went on to sell to the New York Times in January 2022.

How to Play ‘Connections’

Each day, Connections players are presented with 16 words, which they are tasked with dividing into four categories based around common characteristics.

The four categories are all color-coded to show their difficulty, with yellow being the easiest then green, blue and purple. Players choose four words at a time, and if they are connected, constituting one of the four categories, they light up and are removed from the board. At this point, their color is also revealed, showing how difficult the quiz setters expected that set of connections to be.

If a player guesses incorrect groups of words four times, the game ends, and they are defeated. There is no time limit for the puzzle.

At any point, the player can shuffle the board resulting in the 16 words being randomly repositioned.

According to Connections editor Wyna Liu, if you have five cards that all seem to belong in the same category, your best move may well be to try to figure out a different category, then come back to the original one once some of the words are eliminated.

Liu said: “Doing so might take one of those extra cards out of contention, or at least remove a few cards from the board, making other categories easier to see.”

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

‘Connections’ #686 Clues for Sunday, April 27

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

Yellow: Related to math.

Green: Think hair.

Blue: Edible.

Purple: Scandinavian country.

‘Connections’ #686 Answers for Sunday, April 27

Yellow Category: CALCULATOR BUTTONS

Yellow Words: EQUALS, MINUS, PERCENT, TIMES

Green Category: AMOUNTS OF HAIR

Green Words: LOCK, SHOCK, THATCH, TUFT

Blue Category: SALTY SNACK UNIT

Blue Words: COMBO, GOLDFISH, RUFFLE, TAKI

Purple Category: SWEDISH

Purple Words: CHEF, FISH, MASSAGE, MEATBALL

Well that was a tough one! Did you figure it out? If so congratulations, but please don’t worry if not. One of the best things about Connections is seeing if you can improve your result over time, and practice really does help make perfect.

The next Connections puzzle will be published by the New York Times on Monday and Newsweek will of course be back to offer another round of hints and tips to help you figure out the answer.