If you want an easy way to come back to our Connections hints every day,bookmark this page.

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?

Youll want to know what a POPPY looks like, and when you might see a MOTH.

It would also help to know more than one use of the word BALLPARK.

Green category - Look for these at night.

Blue category - Ironically: not blue.

Purple category - I (honestly) did not figure this one out until it was too late.

Does todays Connections game involve any wordplay?

Theres a fill-in-the-blank for the purple category, and its a tougher one than usual.

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 further down.)

What are the ambiguous words in todays Connections?

A BALLPARK can be a place to play baseball, or a metaphor for estimation.

If youre close in your guess, youre in the right ballpark.

A BAT can be found in a ballpark, but not today.

Its also a rank in the Catholic church, just below the Pope.

More familiarly, its a red songbird.

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.

How I solved todays Connections

BEET caught my eye first.

Its got to refer to beet-red, because otherwise how often do we talk about beets?

POPPY and CARDINAL are clearly its brethren.

Anyway, BRICK red is a shade of red, so that filled out my group.

CUP, LID, STIRRER, and STRAW fit together, obviously.

But youd find them all together on a Starbucks counter next to the napkins, so here they are.

All are slightly spooky, and arguably nocturnal.

Wolves arereally more crepuscular, but does Wyna Liu know that?

Does she thinkweknow that?

Anyway, that was a hit.

It didnt occur to me to phrase my estimate in terms of a ballparkfigure.

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 loop back and try.

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.

Check back tomorrow for the next puzzle!