Today’s Connections Hints & Answers For October 24, 2024 (Puzzle #501)

Instead of getting a fortune teller to help you with today’s Connections, you can come to us for all the help you need. Today’s puzzle is somewhat challenging and a little self-aggrandizing, but in a way that makes it a bit harder to solve. Depending on your familiarity with not only foreign languages but also very specific cultural products, this puzzle could be easier or could be much more difficult.

If you want something that changes every day but always follows the same exact rules, you should try playing The Password Game every day. There are a lot of rules to follow to tailor your password to perfection. But figuring out exactly how to combine all of the rules into a single solution that does not contradict the others can be quite a challenge. However, I find it a good way to test my brain and keep it happy and healthy with something a little more fun than addition or subtraction.

Today’s Connections Category Hints

OCTOBER 24 #501

Today’s puzzle feels quite normal, at least compared to the last two days, but that does not mean that there are not some tricks involved. The easier categories can have some crossover between words, and the last two have words that seemingly don’t share many traits. Separating those out is the key to solving any puzzle, and we are here to help with a few key clues:

• One category is about how you can find out when something is
• One category is where the self-aggrandizing aspect comes into play
• One category is about things you can make out of a common office item
• One category is about words that all share the same origin

If you still need some nudging and some help to finish solving the puzzle, the category names are usually very telling and are your best bet for finishing the game without looking directly at the answers.

Today’s Connections Answers

OCTOBER 24 #501

Yellow Answers: Revealed & Explained

This one was the first category I got today, and it was mainly by looking at all of the words for a long time and seeing that PROGRAM and SCHEDULE both existed and might have another pair to go with them. I originally had them as part of the newspaper group, but once I saw BILL I thought they must actually be on their own. SLATE was the last one I added in, and it proved to be the right move to make in this instance.

Green Answers: Revealed & Explained

While I had a good idea that these were all likely related to newspapers, I did roll my eyes at the title. I’d venture that many who play Connections do not actually read the rest of the NYT, so this is a nice little self-promotional piece. I would like to know if many of you read the rest of the paper, or if you get your news in other places. I have read a fair amount of their articles myself, but mostly in academic settings and I do not think I have ever ventured into their AUDIO or COOKING tabs.

Blue Answers: Revealed & Explained

This one got me as I had AIRPLANE, CRANE, and FAN all in a category together about things that could fly or had “wings” and I couldn’t figure out what the last word would possibly be. I feel like I was slightly cheated on it being FORTUNE TELLER and that they are all origami forms. However, once I googled them, I was hit in the face with prime early 2000s nostalgia and how all of my friends made these constantly. But I am also very certain we never called them “fortune tellers” and cannot recall the name we used.

Purple Answers: Revealed & Explained

ADIEU told me that this was probably a foreign language situation as none of the other words in the puzzle seemed to mean “good-bye.” BELLE was fairly easy to spot, and from there, my instincts from French class kicked in, and I distinctly remembered PAIN from the very important bakery section in our book. TEMPS was the last one that I felt very silly overlooking, but it did look like it belonged with the newspaper words in a “weather” sense early on.

Other Games Like Connections

If you want to keep going with your puzzling endeavors, or perhaps check out another game while you start folding paper airplanes, look in the table below to get some good ideas about where to look next.