NYT Connections Answers: If today’s New York Times Connections puzzle left you scratching your head, you’re not alone. Puzzle #695 for Wednesday, May 7, threw in more than a few curveballs — including a purple category that had even seasoned players doing a double-take. But if you missed out on the win or want to decode the mind behind the madness, here’s your guided tour through the word maze.
The Puzzle Format: Four Sets, One Goal
Each Connections puzzle challenges players to group 16 words into four clusters of four, with each group sharing a hidden link. The twist? Some groupings may seem obvious, but red herrings abound. The game ends after four incorrect guesses, revealing the answers and testing not just vocabulary but intuition.
The puzzle also uses colour codes to signal difficulty:
- Yellow: The easiest set.
- Green: Still easy, but sneakier.
- Blue: Middle of the road.
- Purple: The toughest nut to crack.
Yellow Group: Recovery Mode
If you’ve recently been on the mend or know someone who has, this group may have felt familiar. Words like Heal, Knit, Mend, and Recover were all tied to the idea of getting better — physically or emotionally. Whether it’s a broken bone or a broken heart, this category brought in a comforting theme: resilience.
Theme: Get Better, As A Broken Bone
Green Group: The Great Excluders
This one required you to think like an editor or a debater. Words like Besides, But, Except, and Save all function as ways to exclude or contrast. According to the hint, “These words may introduce something that doesn’t belong to the group,” and that’s exactly what they do in grammar and logic.
Theme: Not Including
Blue Group: A Tarot Turn
Those with a mystical bent or knowledge of card reading may have spotted this instantly. The Blue group leaned into Tarot Minor Arcana territory, with Cups, Pentacles, Swords, and Wands forming the spiritual core of this cluster. As the hint rightly put it: “Think of tarot cards.”
Theme: Tarot Minor Arcana Suits
Purple Group: Hearing Double?
This was perhaps the day’s trickiest category. The clue offered a sly audio nudge: “Do I hear a homophone?” The answer? Yes. Choral, Opel, Purl, and Quarts are all homophones of gemstones (coral, opal, pearl, and quartz, respectively). It was a classic NYT curveball — clever and designed to stump.
Theme: Homophones Of Gemstones
For those who didn’t make it through all four without triggering the game over screen, don’t worry — today’s puzzle packed more traps than usual. As always, you can try again tomorrow and maybe even catch the theme before it catches you.
