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 retry.

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?

Green category - This one brings the heat.

Blue category - This one smells fishy.

Purple category - Talk it out, folks, and you should get it.

Does todays Connections game involve any wordplay?

Another category is based on the pronunciation of the words.

Ready to hear the answers?

Keep scrolling if you want a little more help.

BEWARE: Spoilers follow for todays Connections puzzle!

Were about to give away some of the answers.

Scroll slowly if you dont want the whole thing spoiled.

(The full solution is a bit farther down.)

What are the ambiguous words in todays Connections?

SMELT is a jot down of fish, or the past tense of smell if you are British.

To CARP about something is to complain.

A CARP is also a pop in of fish.

In baseball, SAFE on base means you didnt get an OUT.

To FORGE is to create something from raw materials.

What are the categories in todays Connections?

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.

WALK and SALMON also have an oddly placed L. I thought for a moment silent L?

and then said the words over and over to myself.

I definitely pronounce yolk different from yoke, but it felt like it still fit the theme.

(Turns out there isregional variationon the pronunciation of the l in yolk.)

I submitted those words (correct!)

and then had just four fishes left: CARP, CATFISH, FLOUNDER, SMELT.

It didnt occur to me that they were fishthat were also verbs, but I got it nonetheless.

The rest were straightforward.

Baseball umpire calls stood out, and then I was left with different types of furnaces.

An easy solve for me today.