NYT ‘Connections' Today: Hints And Answers For Tuesday, May 20
Before we get to today's Connections hints and answers, here are Monday's:
Hey there, Connectors! I hope your week is off to a great start.
I had planned to check out a local punk festival over the weekend at the free outdoor stage. However, it was raining much of the weekend and there were thunderstorm warnings. I didn't feel up to standing in the mud and rain – I am, after all, someone who goes to arena shows and takes all-inclusive vacations.
So perhaps I'm not much of a punk. I don't think I ever really was, though I like to think I have a little of that culture's DIY, scrappy ethos in my soul. At least to a certain degree, you need some of that to be a self-employed/freelance worker. You can have that while trying to be as physically comfortable as possible, right?
Before we begin, we have a great little community on Discord, where we chat about NYT Connections, the rest of the NYT games and all kinds of other stuff. Everyone who has joined has been lovely. It's a fun hangout spot, and you're more than welcome to hang out with us.
Discord is also the best way to give me any feedback about the column, especially on the rare (or not-so-rare) occasions that I mess something up. I don't look at the comments or Twitter much. You can also read my weekend editions of this column at my new newsletter, Pastimes.
Today's NYT Connections hints and answers for Tuesday, May 20 are coming right up.
Connections is a free, popular New York Times daily word game. You get a new puzzle at midnight every day. You can play on the NYT's website or Games app.
You're presented with a grid of 16 words. Your task is to arrange them into four groups of four by figuring out the links between them. The groups could be things like items you can click, names for research study participants or words preceded by a body part.
There's only one solution for each puzzle, and you'll need to be careful when it comes to words that might fit into more than one category. You can shuffle the words to perhaps help you see links between them.
Each group is color coded. The yellow group is usually the easiest to figure out, blue and green fall in the middle, and the purple group is usually the most difficult one. The purple group often involves wordplay.
Select four words you think go together and press Submit. If you make a guess and you're incorrect, you'll lose a life. If you're close to having a correct group, you might see a message telling you that you're one word away from getting it right, but you'll still need to figure out which one to swap.
If you make four mistakes, it's game over. Let's make sure that doesn't happen with the help of some hints, and, if you're really struggling, today's Connections answers. As with Wordle and other similar games, it's easy to share results with your friends on social media and group chats.
If you have an NYT All Access or Games subscription, you can access the publication's Connections archive. This includes every previous game of Connections, so you can go back and play any of those that you have missed.
Aside from the first 60 games or so, you should be able to find my hints via Google if you need them! Just click here and add the date of the game for which you need clues or the answers to the search query.
Scroll slowly! Just after the hints for each of today's Connections groups, I'll reveal what the groups are without immediately telling you which words go into them.
Today's 16 words are...
And the hints for today's Connections groups are:
Need some extra help?
Be warned: we're starting to get into spoiler territory.
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Today's Connections groups are...
Spoiler alert! Don't scroll any further down the page until you're ready to find out today's Connections answers.
This is your final warning!
Today's Connections answers are...
Heck yes, I got a perfect game this time to take me up to an 84th win on my streak. Here's how I fared:
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟩🟩🟩🟩
My brain went to "Heath" as soon as I saw LEDGER. HARDY, MURPHY, BALE and HOLMES are also actors in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy. Still, I suspected (correctly!) those might be a red herring, so I looked elsewhere.
LEDGER went with the rest of the yellows easily enough. BALE could have worked with TROUGH, HORSE, PITCHFORK and WATER, so I left those alone for the time being. MURPHY, however, went quite clearly with DAY, CANOPY and WATER. That wrapped up the purple group.
It was pretty straightforward from there. I got the group of detective characters for the blues. They reference Leroy/Encyclopedia BROWN (I think?), Nancy DREW, The HARDY Boys and Enola HOLMES (given the "kid-lit" nature of the category).
That left the greens to wrap things up. The category was easy enough to figure out before submitting them.
That's all there is to it for today's Connections clues and answers. Be sure to check my blog tomorrow for hints and the solution for Wednesday's game if you need them.
P.S. I was very happy to learn that Anamanaguchi are going to play close to me on their upcoming tour. I snapped up a ticket immediately. I've enjoyed that band for a long time. They're one of the best known bands in the chiptune genre, marrying music made with the soundchips of '80s and '90s Nintendo consoles with drums and guitars.
The band has placed less emphasis on the chiptune element of their sound in new single "Darcy." It's a more subtle component of this song, still there, but not as centered as in much of Anamanaguchi's earlier work. "Darcy" is out of the Weezer playbook and that's not a bad thing at all. I also love that Anamanaguchi recorded their new album at the American Football house (if you know, you know – but that's another story for another time).
I dig this song. I'm looking forward to seeing these guys in a few months:
Bonus recommendation: here's "Endless Fantasy," from Anamanaguchi's 2014 album of the same name. Banger (and yes, they did actually send a slice of pizza to space):
Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Call someone you love!
Please follow my blog for more coverage of NYT Connections and other word games, and even some video game news, insights and analysis. It helps me out a lot! Sharing this column with other people who play Connections would be appreciated too. You can also read my weekend editions of this column at my new newsletter, Pastimes.
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