Today's Connections Hints & Answers For December 30, 2024 (Puzzle #568)

If you are looking to wrap up today’s Connections puzzle as quickly as possible, you may want to look into these tips and tricks. There are a lot of seemingly disconnected words in this one, with not that much to make players assume they are connected. It might take some specialized knowledge to finish this one off, which is one of the more frustrating types of puzzle when you don’t know. However, these tips might jar your memory enough to help you finish off the puzzle without losing your streak.

If you want something a lot like Connections but with an extra clue and at a smaller level, you should try out the NYT Wordle puzzle. This is one of the most popular NYT puzzles, and it is currently on its 1290th iteration. There are still a fair number of unused 5-letter words, which means there are plenty more puzzles yet to come that you can enjoy solving by deducing where each letter must go.

Today's Connections Category Hints

DECEMBER 30 #568

Hints for this puzzle will either make the puzzle easier or you might still find yourself frustrated. This could be because you already had an inkling as to what the category might be but didn’t know what the final word or two was. There are some words that could be considered more obscure and some that require some pretty specific knowledge. Still, you can try to use these clues before heading into the meat of the spoilers.

One category is about what you might find yourself eating around midday

One category is about the different things you need to make a certain popular beverage

One category is about the words you might use if someone owes you money

One category is about a group of proper nouns that all share a feature at the end of them

Related 12 Letter Boxed Strategies To Win Quickly The Letter Boxed game for the New York Times mobile app asks you to connect letters to form words while using various strategies to win quickly.

While those hints might not be enough today, there are still plenty of ways we can help you solve the puzzle. Here are all of the category names, followed by the rest of the spoilers.

LUNCH ORDERS USED TO MAKE COFFEE PAY, WITH "UP" NAMES FEATURING "!"

Today's Connections Answers

DECEMBER 30 #568

Yellow Answers: Revealed & Explained

LUNCH ORDERS CLUB HERO MELT WRAP

There are a lot of different kinds of sandwiches, and these are four that might appear on a local menu quite often. CLUB and WRAP are the most obvious ones here and the ones that clued me in. It wasn’t that hard to add MELT in, but it took me a long time to find the last word. I avoided wasting guesses because I knew that wasn’t a viable strategy, but I don’t think I have come across a HERO sandwich on a menu before. Luckily, I didn’t waste the guesses, but I am now very curious.

Green Answers: Revealed & Explained

USED TO MAKE COFFEE BEANS FILTER GRINDER WATER

This was the first one I got and the easiest for me. Turns out that 3 years as a barista does actually have the occasional benefit. I saw BEANS, FILTER, and GRINDER and was fairly certain what I was looking at nearly immediately. I was very quick to spot WATER, and I thought for a moment all the trauma was worth it. It wasn’t, but at least I was able to solve this category quickly and efficiently and I can make a great cup of coffee when it’s needed.

Related 8 NYT Tiles Strategies To Score Huge Combos The Tiles game for the New York Times mobile app asks you to use various strategies to pair matching visual patterns together to build huge combos.

Blue Answers: Revealed & Explained

PAY, WITH "UP" ANTE COUGH PONY SETTLE

This was the last category I got, and one that was a little harder to get. There are some words here that are used in extremely specific ways and in jargon that isn’t used outside of those situations. Even if you recognize one or two of them, COUGH up being the most likely in my opinion, it might be hard to get the rest. The best bet if you have already solved the first two categories is to decide what words would make the most sense along with COUGH and SETTLE, but that is not a guarantee.

Purple Answers: Revealed & Explained

NAMES FEATURING "!" AIRPLANE JEOPARDY PINK YAHOO

I was able to finish this puzzle because I could get this category without solving the last one. I was suspicious that it had something to do with “!” because of JEOPARDY and YAHOO, but I wasn’t sure what words might come with exclamation points. AIRPLANE made sense to me, I thought I had seen the movie title before, but I had to guess on PINK. Luckily it was correct but it was quite a close call.

Other Games Like Connections

If you are still in a puzzling mood and want to close out the year by relaxing and playing a fun game, try one of the ones in the box below.

Game Name How To Play Is It Free To Play? Wordle (NYT) Solve a random five-letter word by using color clues. Every Wordle answer can be found in our daily updated list. Yes Hello Wordl Very similar to Wordle, where players change the number of letters in the word. Yes The Password Game Create a password in this ever-changing, not-so-simple game. You can find some helpful tips in our Password Game guide. Yes Worldle Name a country based only on its silhouette, and a few geographical hints. Yes