Youll see a game board with 16 tiles, each with one word or phrase.

Your job is to select a group of four tiles that have something in common.

Select four items and hit the Submit button.

If you guessed correctly, the category and color will be revealed.

(Yellow is easiest, followed by green, then blue, then purple.)

If your guess was incorrect, youll get a chance to give it another spin.

You win when youve correctly identified all four groups.

But if you make four mistakes before you finish, the game ends and the answers are revealed.

Expect to see overlapping groups.

So dont hit submit until youve confirmed that your group of four containsonlythose four things.

If youre stuck, another strategy is to look at the words that seem to havenoconnection to the others.

Another way to win when youre stuck is, obviously, to read a few helpful hints.

Below, Ill give you some oblique hints at todays Connections answers.

And further down the page, Ill reveal the themes and the answers.

Scroll slowly and take just the hints you need!

Does todays Connections game require any special knowledge?

Some are more well-known than others.

BASSOONand OBOE are both woodwind instruments.

OLDS can be a nickname for the Oldsmobile, or the name of its inventor,Ransom E. Olds.

There is also a poet namedSharon Olds.

Green category - Its music to your ears.

Blue category - There are some literary references in this one.

Purple category - Reminds me of tennis…doubles, anyone?

Does todays Connections game involve any wordplay?

In two different ways.

Ready to hear the answers?

Keep scrolling if you want a little more help.

BEWARE: Spoilers and answers follow for todays Connections puzzle!

Ready to learn the answers to todays Connections puzzle?

I give them all away below.

What are the yellow words in todays Connections?

The yellow grouping is considered to be the most straightforward.

What are the green words in todays Connections?

The green grouping is supposed to be the second-easiest.

What are the blue words in todays Connections?

The blue grouping is the second-hardest.

What are the purple words in todays Connections?

The purple grouping is considered to be the hardest.

(Champagne flute, get it?)

And I was wrong.

One mistake down, three to go.

So much for trying to do this in my head.

I got my trusty scratch paper out again and made some lists.

Instruments, drinking glasses, what else?

I saw the names Ezra POUND and Gertrude STEIN.

Robert FROST could go with them.

And I noticed the similar spellings of BALLOON and BASSOON.

BALLOON, BASSOON, FRICASSEE, and COFFEE all hadtwopairs of double letters.

I submitted that group as my next guess, and was correct.

(Reading them, though, Im not sure Id agree.)

I submitted those, and then the musical instruments.

My final list of glassware was GOBLET, SNIFTER, TUMBLER, STEIN.