Today’s Connections Hints & Answers For December 26, 2024 (Puzzle #564)

If you are struggling to find a respectable answer to today’s Connections puzzle, then you have likely come looking for the hints and tricks you need to win the day. This puzzle has some tricky spaces, particularly with the amount of adjectives and adverbs cluttering up the puzzle. If you need help navigating through this environment, we have everything you need to do so down below with the usual assortment of good times and helpful rhymes.

It’s the day after Christmas and you might be looking to solve a few puzzles in your downtime as you de-stress and wait for the New Year to come around. If you are, you can try the NYT’s Tiles puzzle to help you unwind and have some chill puzzling time. There are lots of comforting games out there, but this one is good because there are not that many ways to fail, and you get a warm sense of accomplishment from seeing every pair of tiles melt away.

Today’s Connections Category Hints

DECEMBER 26 #563

There are plenty of tricks hiding in this puzzle but plenty of clues to help them disappear as well. There are two quite tricky categories to separate, but two that should be easier as well. The purple category is interesting today, as it would be more recognizable if the words were changed ever so slightly. With these clues, perhaps you can start to undo the puzzle.

• One category is about what things are almost
• One category is about different types of the same plant
• One category is about words describing a quantity of something
• One category is four different uses of shorthand but in a very particular format

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If these hints are still not doing enough for you, knowing the category names often helps people get the rest of the way there. All four of them are listed in the box below, followed by the full spoilers.

	APPROXIMATELY
	TREES
	SIZABLE, AS AN AMOUNT
	U.S. STATE ABBREVIATIONS, PER AP STYLE GUIDE

Today’s Connections Answers

DECEMBER 26 #563

Yellow Answers: Revealed & Explained

This category is one of the harder ones today, mostly due to the blue category being very similar. Both of them are about describing something else, and both of them have very similar word choices. You have to make a judgment call early on this one and hope it’s right. Luckily, I had the right idea for the most part, but I did get confused at least once trying to get this category solved. It was not a game-ender, but it was close enough that I got a little nervous.

Green Answers: Revealed & Explained

This category I got first and fast, and I am happy I did because my tree-knowledge would be in question if I didn’t. I am quite fond of tree-lore, and not knowing four fairly basic trees would make me sad. It’s also a category that has normal nouns, compared to the grammar in both of the other easier categories and none of the words are seemingly cut off like they are in the last. That makes this category the easiest one today, but that could be different if you were not as familiar with trees as I am.

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Blue Answers: Revealed & Explained

This one is strictly an amount of something, which is the main distinguishing factor from the first category. It’s still tricky to get perfect the first time, but I was able to make sense of it fairly quickly compared to the last few puzzles I have done. This one was hard enough to make me think about it without being something I was completely unfamiliar with, which I liked. It made all those grammar lessons in elementary school worth it, at least for a little while. Perhaps my teachers should earn a RESPECTABLE award from it.

Purple Answers: Revealed & Explained

This last one could be hard depending on your familiarity with the AP style guide. Most press outlets use it, so you have likely seen these abbreviations at least in passing even if you don’t know you have. Most people are more familiar with the 2-letter abbreviations, a.k.a. AL instead ALA, which is likely where people might miss out on this one. However, this is one of the first purple categories in a while that I could say I had hope to solve before the end, and it’s nice to feel that way every once and a while.

Other Games Like Connections

If you still need some time to unwind, there are plenty more puzzles waiting for you in the box below.

Released

June 12, 2023

Developer(s)

The New York Times Company

Publisher(s)

The New York Times Company

ESRB

e

Platform(s)

Web Browser
, Mobile