Playing Those Mind Games

Do you like mind games? If so, put yours to work on these two. What do the following words have in common – CRACKER, WALL, HOSE and FLY? Too easy? Then how about MUSSEL, BEAR, FLOWER, and SOLE? I truly love a challenging game, and this one has become my new obsession! 

If you haven’t been introduced to the latest New York Times game called Connections, consider this your meet and greet. Each year the publication holds an event in which participants are asked to suggest ideas for games. Beta testing is done on viable ones, then some are added to the NYT website. In development for a year, Connections was released last summer and is now the second most played game published by the NYT, with Wordle still holding the top spot.

From my journal: June 20, 2024, Newbury Park, California

“With Barry and Laurie at the Hollywood Bowl last night…Laurie mentioned ‘Connections’…tried it for the first time today…fun!…I could become addicted!”

Connections is a word game in which a grid of 16 words appears on your screen. Your job as the puzzle solver is to divide the words into four groups of four based on how they are related. When you select four words that are connected correctly, the title of the category is revealed as well as a color that indicates its difficulty level. Yellow is the easiest to figure out, followed by green, next is blue, then purple, the hardest to solve.

Let’s take these words for instance CAT, DOG, HAMSTER and BIRD. They could easily be categorized as FAMILY PETS, right? Makes perfect sense. However, words can fit into more than one category, so you’ll need to put on your thinking cap and not submit your answers too hastily! To win at Connections, you get four guesses. And take it from me, sometimes, it’s more difficult than it seems. More than once, I have been left scratching my head until all answers were disclosed.

To save you a little time and perhaps frustration, here are a few tips. Ones I wish I knew from the get-go. 

1. Look for the most obvious connections first and leave the least apparent for last.
2. Look up the definition of words you don’t know. Think of it as research, not cheating.
3. Use the “Shuffle” button when you feel stuck. This will put the words in the grid in a different order. This may help you see matches more clearly.
4. When you make a mistake and the message “one word off” appears, use it to spot the word that is incorrect in that group and change it.
5. Learn from your mistakes. Errors can help you figure out other connections between words.
6. Words can be related by techniques used in word play, such as anagrams, palindromes, and onomatopoeia. Good to know!

Everyone has their own way of approaching this type of puzzle, but the way I like to play is to read all the words once. Next I go back and brainstorm categories. On a piece of paper I write down a category name and list four words that fit it. Then I select the four words on my screen, cross my fingers, and submit my answer! I continue this way until I either win (yay!) or lose (boo!).

Now back to the words at the top of this post. If you didn’t figure out the connections, here are the answers. CRACKER, WALL, HOSE, and FLY are connected by putting the word FIRE in front of them. And MUSSEL, BEAR, FLOWER, and SOLE? They are homophones, words that are spelled differently, but are pronounced the same way. Mussel, muscle. Bear, bare. Flower, flour. Sole, soul. 

Even if I don’t get all the connections, I always have fun playing and I usually learn a new way to use a word. I may even expand my vocabulary in the process. And if this isn’t enough, research shows that taking time to solve puzzles improves your mental speed, focus, and short-term memory. All good reasons to keep on playing those mind games!