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Clues And Answer For Puzzle #342


Since it launched in June 2023, Connections has become a New York Times hit mobile game. But it is not always easy.

Are you struggling with today’s Connections game? Need a few tips to complete it? Newsweek is here to help.

How To Play ‘Connections’

In Connections, players are tasked with grouping together words by matching them by theme or categories.

Mobile phone game
A woman looks at her phone during a street-style fashion photo session in Paris, France. Mobile phone games like Connections have become popular in recent months.

Photo by Edward Berthelot/Getty Images

There are 16 words in the game in total, and each group of words are separated into four categories. The uniting themes can come from a broad range of categories, including anything from horror-movie franchises, to types of sound, to food.

If all four words are correctly placed into each set, the words will be removed from the board until all the words are removed.

Players can shuffle and rearrange the board if they want to try to make the process of guessing the connections easier.

The board also has a color-coding system representing levels of difficulty. Yellow is the easiest, then green, blue, and purple. A group’s color will be revealed only once the words in a group have been correctly connected.

Meanwhile, players can make up to four mistakes before the game ends.

Connections editor Wyna Liu said if you notice that there are five or more words that belong to one category, try pivoting to a different category before making your first guess.

“Doing so might take one of those extra cards out of contention, or at least remove a few cards from the board, making other categories easier to see,” Liu said.

Newsweek has compiled some hints for today’s game below and scroll down with caution because there will be spoilers.

Connections’ #342 Clues for Saturday, May 18

Yellow: Related to animals.

Green: Related to movement.

Blue: These words are about parties.

Purple: Each of these words are objects containing a similar mechanism.

‘Connections’ #342 Answers for Saturday, May 18

Yellow Category: Animals whose names are two animals

Yellow Words: Bulldog, Catfish, Horsefly, Turtledove

Green Category: Sharp turns

Green Words: Dogleg, Hairpin, Switchback, Zag

Blue Category: Classic party games

Blue Words: Categories, Charades, Fishbowl, Werewolf

Purple Category: Things with spring/s

Purple Words: Clock, Mattress, Mousetrap, Trampoline

That’s that until tomorrow, then. Connections is released at midnight in your local time zone. Newsweek will be back with another round of hints and tips for each new game.

If you are still craving some quiz action, why not try The New York Times’ most-played word game Wordle as well?