Today’s Connections Hints & Answers For December 05, 2024 (Puzzle #543)

If you are sticking your nose into today’s Connections puzzle, you might find you feel like you are in a little too deep. There are a lot of different possible categories and some of the words are referencing something that is not in the common knowledge the same way its peers are. Particularly when I thought it was referencing one semi-obscure thing, only to find out it has a different bit of obscurity to it that I was unaware of. To avoid these pitfalls, check out the hints below.

If you are looking for something a little more mindless that can help you wind down, you should check out the NYT’s Tiles puzzle. It is kind of like Mahjong and has the same gameplay loop to it, but it usually has different images and patterns every day. This makes it a little new but keeps the same kind of energy that allows you to do just enough thinking to make the matches happen without keeping you wide awake.

Today’s Connections Category Hints

DECEMBER 05 #543

If you are looking for hints on today’s puzzle, you will want to examine each word quite closely. In this case, not all of them should be taken at face value, and you should think about any associations they might have. Once you do, you might find the puzzle a little easier. Additionally, there are a few false categories hidden in there, and I barely scraped a win for this one because of that.

One category is about what it is called when someone is a natural
One category is about things that are not on the inside
One category is about four things that all have the same product
One category is about four words that all come before the same word in a phrase – that word is the type of thing they all are

Once you have finished up re-examining the puzzle, you can keep scrolling to find more hints in the form of category names if you need more assistance.

Today’s Connections Answers

DECEMBER 05 #543

Yellow Answers: Revealed & Explained

If you are a natural at something you have a GIFT for it, or any of the other three words above. I have definitely seen similar categories with a similar set of words in the past six or seven months that I have been doing this, so it’s interesting that they keep coming back to it. I suppose there is a finite number of words, all told. However, it did take me a while to add NOSE to this category, as I did not know that it could be used like this before.

Green Answers: Revealed & Explained

Things are not always what they seem on the OUTSIDE. On the SURFACE, a puzzle is just a puzzle, but below that FRONT is a strange amount of depth and sometimes philosophical differences in how words and grammar are understood. It is a complex mystery and one that I do enjoy thinking about while playing these puzzles and working on these guides. But, on the FACE of it, a game is just a game, and we have to play by its rules.

Blue Answers: Revealed & Explained

This category had several confusing components, at least in my time with this puzzle. APPLE and LIME I thought might go together, but there were not any other fruit pieces. AMAZON, RHINE, YELLOW, and ORACLE are all rivers, so that was another potential option and included a somewhat obscure river. ORACLE and AMAZON are both mythological figures again, but nothing else really was. I pegged AMAZON, APPLE, and INTUIT, but I had to search to see what other tech/software/engineering companies were left in the puzzle, and strangely AMAZON and ORACLE were paired off but for other reasons.

Purple Answers: Revealed & Explained

These words were all with others at some point in the process, except for maybe BRIM, which I couldn’t find a good match for. It all makes perfect sense now, and the much younger me, who was very nearly a geologist, was at least excited to see a lot of different rocks. I still have pieces of my rock collection too, but unfortunately, they are buried somewhere so deep they will likely never see daylight ever again. Alas, if only I knew exactly where they were.

Other Games Like Connections

If you need a strange but satisfying challenge, check out the Crosswordle to see if you can successfully complete a combination of an old classic and a new favorite.