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Today’s Connections hint and answer on 22nd May for 346

How to group together today’s NYT Connections.

Image credit: Eurogamer/The New York Times
Paulo Kawanishi avatar
Guide by Paulo Kawanishi Contributor
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We're in the middle of the week and there are only a couple of days before we hit the weekend. Let's focus on what we need to do today and don't forget to check the Connections answer for today, 22nd May.

If you haven't played it before, Connections challenges you to sort a group of 16 words into four groups where all of the words are well... connected. This connection could come from them sharing a similar meaning, being part of a place name, objects found in a kitchen or anything at all really!

While this may sound easy, the Connection groups each have a different level of difficulty - with Yellow being the easiest and Purple being the hardest. For this reason, working out today's Connection answer might be rather tricky. You may get one group straight away, but another might be a mystery to you. Thankfully we're here to help!

Originally developed during The New York Times game department's annual game jam, the beta version of Connections was released in June 2023. Since then it has become one of the most popular games The NYTimes has to offer, only beaten by Worlde. Though some connections have been made to the BBC's Only Connect program...

Hint for today's Connections answer

Instead of jumping straight to the answer, let's start with some hints for today's Connections puzzle:

  • Yellow - These words refers to body parts.
  • Green - Related to a type of vehicle.
  • Blue - Words that involve extracting.
  • Purple - Things that are lively.
  • Shoulders belongs in the Yellow group, Ride in Green, and Pares in Blue.

Remember - Yellow is the easiest group to find followed by Green and Blue, with Purple being the hardest set of words to connect.

Connection words for 22nd May

Here's the words included in today's Connections puzzle - see if the clues above help you form a connection before we visit today's answer:

Wheels Peels Bees Knees
Shells Gossip Shoulders Ride
Head Whip Shuckst Caffeine
Auto Intercoms Toes Pares

Connections answer for 22nd May

Without further ado, here's the Connections answer for today:

  • Body Parts in "HEAD, SHOULDERS, KNEES AND TOES" - Head, Knees, Shoulders, Toes
  • Car, Informally - Auto, Ride, Wheels, Whip
  • Removes The Covering of - Pares, Peels, Shells, Shucks
  • "Buzzy" Things - Bees, Caffeine, Gossip, Intercoms

Today's puzzle gave us two groups that really helped to find the more difficult combinations. I began grouping Head, Knees, Shoulders, and Toes since they are body parts. After completing the first one, my second try was a complete failure. However, in my third, I got the Green group. The real challenge was to find the Blue and Purple groups. For the former, I followed the idea of putting words that seemed to have similar sounds - in one of my guesses, I put Bees but it didn’t work. The latter group was simply the result of grouping the remaining words.

Here's the 22nd May 2024 346 Connections answer

What to play after Connections?

The obvious answer to this question is Wordle, but, if you've already solved that today, then The New York Times does offer other games. When it comes to word-based games, The NYTimes has the Mini Crossword, Spelling Bee, Letter Boxed and Strands, which is still in its beta phase. If you fancy a break from words, then you can also try Tiles - a motif matching game - or Sudoku.

NYT Games

Outside of The NYTimes, there's Semantle - where you have to reach the secret word by guessing its meaning. Spelling doesn't count in Semantle, instead you have to pay attention to the numerical value your guesses have to chart your path to the answer. If you'd prefer to keep to the Connections format, however, then it's worth visiting Puzzgrid. Here you'll find hundreds of Connections-style puzzles, the twist, however, is that you only have three minutes to solve them.

(You can also just watch Only Connect on BBC iPlayer...)

If you're in a reading mood, then we've discussed why The NYTimes Mini Crossword is a reliable joy and interviewed Jonathan Knight, Head of Games for The NYTimes.

Good luck solving today's Connections!

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