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From minty gums to jazz standards, today's Connections puzzle hides its secrets in flavors, launchpads, and mysterious tubes!
NYT Connections begins with only sixteen words. Players must identify four correct categories in a test of intuition and vocabulary. Consider grouping the relatively straightforward yellow one at first, but beware: purple can be hard!
Let’s understand the hints to solve the equation today.
Today's Theme: "GUM FLAVORS"
Look for popular chewing gum taste varieties
These words all represent common flavors found in gum products
Think about the different taste options available in the gum aisle
Hint: These are distinctive flavor profiles frequently used in chewing gum
Today's Theme: "STARTING POINT"
Focus on terms that describe the beginning of a process or journey
Think about words that represent initial stages or launch mechanisms
Consider metaphors for commencing an action or project
Hint: These words all describe places or things that initiate movement or action
Today's Theme: "GREAT AMERICAN SONGBOOK SONGS"
Look for classic American standard songs from the mid-20th century
Consider famous compositions that have become enduring classics
Think about songs associated with legendary performers like Frank Sinatra or Ella Fitzgerald
Hint: These titles represent iconic standards from the golden age of American popular music
Today's Theme: "___ TUBE"
These words can all precede "TUBE" to form specific types of tubes
Look for different contexts where specialized tubes appear
Consider both scientific and everyday tube varieties
Hint: Each word pairs with "TUBE" to create a distinct tube type with a specific purpose
Practice with hints from previous game puzzles. This will sharpen skills for the coming games.
For the Yellow category focusing on gum flavors, consider the approach from April 24, 2025. The "THINGS THAT ARE WHITE" theme required finding items belonging to a particular color group. Both categories involve recognizing items with shared sensory characteristics, though today's focus is on taste rather than visual appearance.
The Green category, featuring starting points, builds on the pattern from April 23, 2025. The "CANINE/FELINE FEATURES" theme focused on physical characteristics of cats and dogs. While today's category is more conceptual, both require recognizing items that share a common functional relationship.
For the Blue category about classic American songs, apply your cultural knowledge similar to how you'd approach specialized domains. This connects to April 22, 2025's "THINGS THAT ARE SLIPPERY" theme, which required identifying substances with low friction. Both categories test knowledge within specific domains, though in very different areas.
The Purple category tests your ability to recognize different types of tubes when paired with specific descriptive words, continuing the word-pairing pattern that has appeared in many previous puzzles.
For those who want the complete solutions to today's puzzle:
Yellow (Easiest): BUBBLEGUM, CINNAMON, MENTHOL, WINTERGREEN
Blue (Medium-Challenging): CATALYST, LAUNCHPAD, SPARK, SPRINGBOARD
Purple (Hardest): AUTUMN LEAVES, SUMMERTIME, UNFORGETTABLE, WITCHCRAFT
Green (Medium): FALLOPIAN, INNER, TEST, VACUUM
Puzzle designer Wyna Liu developed Connections for the NY Times, part of the NYT Games family, in 2023. Today's Connections puzzle offers an engaging mix of everyday knowledge (gum flavors), conceptual thinking (starting points), cultural literacy (classic songs), and word associations (tube types).
