If you’re looking for the Connections answer for Monday, April 1, 2024, read on—I’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solutions to all four categories. Along the way, I’ll explain the meanings of the trickier...emojis? and we’ll try to figure out what the hell is going on here. Beware, there are spoilers below for April 1, NYT Connections #295! Read on if you want some hints (and then the answer) to today’s Connections game.
If you want an easy way to come back to our Connections hints every day, bookmark this page. You can also find our past hints there as well, in case you want to know what you missed in a previous puzzle.
Below, I’ll give you some oblique hints at today’s Connections answers. And farther down the page, I’ll reveal the themes and the answers. Scroll slowly and take just the hints you need!
Hints for the themes in today’s Connections puzzle
Here are some spoiler-free hints for the groupings in today’s Connections:
Yellow category - Get that bread.
Green category - Rhyme time.
Blue category - Single-word movie titles.
Purple category - Sing your ABC’s.
BEWARE: Spoilers follow for today’s Connections puzzle!
We’re about to give away some of the answers. Scroll slowly if you don’t want the whole thing spoiled. (The full solution is a bit further down.)
A heads up about the tricky parts
If you opened this board and said “what the FUCK,” don’t worry, I did too.
You’ll need to pronounce several of the emojis out loud, so start talking to yourself. Two of the categories are based on how the words sound when you say them out loud.
I’m not even sure what clues to give, so I guess I’ll clarify that the sheep 🐑 is a girl sheep, this guy 🧛 is a specific vampire, not just any old vampire, and 🥬 is meant to be lettuce, rather than some other leafy green. Also, this 🫖 represents the beverage inside, not the pottery it’s served from.
What are the categories in today’s Connections?
Yellow: FOOD SLANG FOR MONEY
Green: WORDS THAT RHYME
Blue: HORROR MOVIES
Purple: LETTER HOMOPHONES
DOUBLE BEWARE: THE SOLUTION IS BELOW
Ready to learn the answers to today’s Connections puzzle? I give them all away below.
What are the yellow words in today’s Connections?
The yellow grouping is considered to be the most straightforward. The theme for today’s yellow group is FOOD SLANG FOR MONEY and the words are: BREAD 🍞, LETTUCE 🥬, CHEDDAR 🧀, BACON 🥓.
What are the green words in today’s Connections?
The green grouping is supposed to be the second-easiest. The theme for today’s green category is WORDS THAT RHYME and the words are: BRAIN 🧠, TRAIN 🚂, PLANE ✈️, RAIN 🌧️.
What are the blue words in today’s Connections?
The blue grouping is the second-hardest. The theme for today’s blue category is HORROR MOVIES and the words are: SAW 🪚, SCREAM 😱, ALIEN 👽, DRACULA 🧛.
What are the purple words in today’s Connections?
The purple grouping is considered to be the hardest. The theme for today’s purple category is LETTER HOMOPHONES and the words are: EYE 👁️, BEE 🐝, TEA 🫖, EWE 🐑.
How I solved today’s Connections
Okay. Sure. I guess they can. They make the game, they make the rules. My god. What has this world come to.
I don’t know how to play a word game in pictures. Can we rhyme things? Are we supposed to know the official names of the emojis, like is that thing a or a “lettuce” or just “leaves”? It kind of looks like bok choy, actually.
Here goes nothing.
After briefly considering the 🍞, 🥬, 🧀, and 🥓 for a sandwich, I reconsider and try a rhyme: 🧠, 🚂, ✈️, 🌧️. (BRAIN, TRAIN, PLANE, RAIN.) I need to point out that that emoji is a locomotive, not a train (a train is a series of cars) but, whatevs, I get it. 🟩
I’m feeling a little bolder now. SAW 🪚 and SCREAM 😱are both horror movies. ALIEN 👽could fit. VAMPIRE? No—DRACULA. 🧛 Yess! I did it! 🟦
I think I see a letter homophone theme, too. EYE 👁️, BEE 🐝, TEA 🫖…but what’s missing? Oh god, it’s not a SHEEP, it’s a EWE 🐑. (I, B, T, U, get it?) 🟪
We’re left with foods. What’s the theme? Aha, you can be a BREAD 🍞winner, bring home the BACON 🥓, or get some CHEDDAR🧀. Now that I’m looking at it closely, I swear that last emoji is a BOK CHOY 🥬 but they seem to mean LETTUCE 🥬. 🟨
Connections Puzzle #295 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟨🟨🟨🟨
How to play Connections
I have a full guide to playing Connections, but here’s a refresher on the rules:
First, find the Connections game either on the New York Times website or in their Games app (formerly the Crossword app). You’ll 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. Often they are all the same type of thing (for example: RAIN, SLEET, HAIL, and SNOW are all types of wet weather) but sometimes there is wordplay involved (for example, BUCKET, GUEST, TOP TEN, and WISH are all types of lists: bucket list, guest list, and so on).
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, you’ll get a chance to try again.
You win when you’ve correctly identified all four groups. But if you make four mistakes before you finish, the game ends and the answers are revealed.
How to win Connections
The most important thing to know to win Connections is that the groupings are designed to be tricky. Expect to see overlapping groups. For example, one puzzle seemed to include six breakfast foods: BACON, EGG, PANCAKE, OMELET, WAFFLE, and CEREAL. But BACON turned out to be part of a group of painters along with CLOSE, MUNCH, and WHISTLER, and EGG was in a group of things that come by the dozen (along with JUROR, ROSE, and MONTH). So don’t hit “submit” until you’ve confirmed that your group of four contains only those four things.
If you’re stuck, another strategy is to look at the words that seem to have no connection to the others. If all that comes to mind when you see WHISTLER is the painting nicknamed “Whistler’s Mother,” you might be on to something. When I solved that one, I ended up googling whether there was a painter named Close, because Close didn’t fit any of the obvious themes, either.
Another way to win when you’re stuck is, obviously, to read a few helpful hints–which is why we share these pointers every day. Check back tomorrow for the next puzzle!