If you’re looking for the Connections answer for Wednesday, March 20, 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 words and we’ll learn how everything fits together. Beware, there are spoilers below for March 20, NYT Connections #283! 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 - Where you’d watch football.
Green category - You’ll remember these if you have a photographic memory.
Blue category - Seen in an Italian restaurant, maybe.
Purple category - Hidden musicians.
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
Bad news, guys. This one is so tough I actually lost, for the second time ever. I’ll try to help you learn from my mistakes.
NEAPOLITAN and PARMESAN are foods. They are also words indicating places in Italy (meaning, literally, “from Naples” and “from Parma”).
HASSELBLAD is a camera company; artistic photographers love their medium-format cameras. OLYMPUS is a mountain in Greece…and also a camera company.
Speaking of cameras, KISSCAM and JUMBOTRON do not go together. JUMBOTRON means what you think it does, and you can go ahead and combine it with things like SCOREBOARD.
KISSCAM, on the other hand, is in the same grouping as RUSHMORE. What do they have in common? I’ll let you figure that out.
What are the categories in today’s Connections?
Yellow: SEEN AT A SPORTS STADIUM
Green: CAMERA BRANDS
Blue: ITALIAN DEMONYMS
Purple: STARTING WITH ROCK BANDS
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 SEEN AT A SPORTS STADIUM and the words are: ASTROTURF, JUMBOTRON, SCOREBOARD, SKYBOX.
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 CAMERA BRANDS and the words are: FUJIFILM, HASSELBLAD, OLYMPUS, POLAROID.
What are the blue words in today’s Connections?
The blue grouping is the second-hardest. The theme for today’s blue category is ITALIAN DEMONYMS and the words are: BOLOGNESE, NEAPOLITAN, PARMESAN, VENETIAN.
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 STARTING WITH ROCK BANDS and the words are: CREAMSICLE, JOURNEYMAN, KISSCAM, RUSHMORE.
How I solved today’s Connections
So many long words! And compound words! And proper names! Hey, I’ll take this over the boards that are filled with two-letter words.
KISSCAM and JUMBOTRON are both video features you might see in a stadium (perhaps from your SKYBOX). SCOREBOARD fits, but so does ASTROTURF. I’ll come back to this one.
HASSELBLAD is a camera, so it could fit with POLAROID, OLYMPUS, and FUJIFILM. 🟩
BOLOGNESE and NEAPOLITAN are both food words (meat sauce and ice cream) that are also Italian place names. PARMESAN is probably a place too (yep: Parma, Italy) and VENETIAN is another Italian name. 🟦
None of this helped me with my football stadium words, and I can’t figure out what the remaining three have in common, besides being compound words. Alright, time to guess. SKYBOX, KISSCAM, JUMBOTRON, SCOREBOARD is one away! ASTROTURF in place of SKYBOX? Still one away!
Hmm. KISSCAM, JUMBOTRON, SCOREBOARD, and RUSHMORE as big displays you look up to? Nope, not even a one away on that one.
Alright. We know that, of ASTROTURF/SKYBOX, either both are right or both are wrong. And out of the three that I combined with RUSHMORE, only two can be right. So here goes nothing: ASTROTURF, SKYBOX, KISSCAM, and JUMBOTRON. (I’m leaving out SCOREBOARD.) Nope! Right instinct on the category, but wrong grouping.
Purple. Rock bands. Really??
Connections Puzzle #283 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟨🟪🟨🟨 🟨🟨🟪🟨 🟪🟨🟪🟨 🟨🟨🟪🟨
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!