As for puns, Relationships has proven to be a firm favourite since arriving on the scene just over a year ago.
Launched by The New York Times in June 2023, Relationships now holds the distinction of being the news media’s second most-played game, after the wildly popular puzzle game Wordle.
While Wordlecreated by Josh Wardle, asks players to find one word per day, Relationships challenges players to find commonalities between a series of words. Players must group them into categories.
Instructions for playing the game are below. Hints and answers for today’s puzzle can be found towards the end of the article.
How to play “Connections”
Relationships The game asks players to group 16 words into four categories based on their association. For example, Friday’s game paired the words “average,” “average,” “okay,” and “so-so” under the category “meh.”
Each of the four categories is identified by a color, which also indicates its difficulty level. Yellow is the easiest category, followed by green, blue, and purple. However, the puzzles are rarely simple, using homophones and wordplay, among other techniques, to keep players challenged.
The familiarity of the words used and the frequency with which they appear in modern life are also factors in difficulty, although less common words are not used only in the most difficult categories. Another way of doing this is through “overlapping elements”, where a word can be linked to several categories. Relationships tests the players.
iStock/Getty Images Plus
If stuck, players can press the shuffle button, which will shuffle where the words appear on the screen.
Wyna Liu, crossword editor at Times who was asked to develop Relationshipssaid Newsweek about his recommended tips for playing the game.
“My best advice is to wait as long as possible before guessing,” she said.
“You can look at the board and have completely identified the category, seeing five words that could belong to that category,” she continued. “Don’t try to guess the four words in that category because even if you know what the fifth member is, you won’t know which of the four it might not be,” which would end up costing you a turn.
“Don’t do what I do, which is ‘resolve the rage,'” Liu said.
Answers for today Relationships The puzzles will be revealed at the end of this article, so scroll with caution if you want to solve them yourself.
‘Connections’ #433 Clues for Saturday, August 17
Newsweek contains some clues to help you understand today Relationships categories.
YELLOW: These words can be used to describe the way people communicate.
Green: These responses represent ways in which one can show romantic affection.
Blue: For these answers, think about the items you would find in a first aid kit.
Purple: These related words could be used to describe the style of a property.
Responses to “Connections” #433 for Saturday, August 17
Yellow Category: SPOKEN COMMUNICATION
Yellow words: Dialect, language, speech, tongue
Green Category: CANOODLE
Green words: French, kiss, kiss, neck
Blue Category: FIRST AID KIT ITEMS
Blue words: Bandage, dressing, scissors, adhesive tape
Purple Category: HOME STYLES
Purple words: Cottage, Craftsman, Meadow, Ranch
Did you guess the answers correctly? If so, congratulations. If not, you will have another chance to solve the puzzle tomorrow.
Relationships is published at midnight in your local time zone. Newsweek I will be back with another set of tips and tricks for each new game.
