Looking for clues for today's Connections answers? The Connections answers on December 26 for puzzle #564 are the same challenge level as yesterday's puzzle, with the Connections Companion rating this puzzle's difficulty at 2.5 out of 5.
Every day, we update this article with Connections hints and tips to help you find all 4 of today's answers so you can keep your Connections streak going. And if the clues aren't enough, you'll find all four answers below, with the category titles and the correlating words.
Plus, we're including a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #563, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.
Spoilers lie ahead for Connections #564. Only read on if you want to know today's Connections answers.
Alternatively, visit our how to play NYT Connections guide for tips on how to solve the puzzle without our help.
Today's Connections answer — hints to help you solve it
Unlike our guide to today's Wordle answer, where we recommend the best Wordle start words as your strategy, solving Connections relies on identifying connecting categories among 16 words. Each category's difficulty level is represented by a color; yellow is the easiest grouping, and purple is the most challenging. Once you've made 4 mistakes in your guesses, the answers will be revealed, so hints can be helpful.
Today's Connections words are: Tidy, Ala, Handsome, Elder, Spruce, Like, Pine, Miss, Healthy, Roughly, Ark, Palm, About, Respectable, Ore, Around
If you need hints to solve the groupings, then here are the themes of each, based on the order of difficulty:
- 🟨 Yellow: APPROXIMATELY
- 🟩 Green: Trees
- 🟦 Blue: SIZABLE, AS AN AMOUNT
- 🟪 Purple: U.S. STATE ABBREVIATIONS, PER AP STYLE
These hints should get you at least some of the way towards finding today's Connections answers. If not, then you can read on for bigger clues; or, if you just want to know the answer, then scroll down further.
Here's a larger hint: It's all about Arbor Day. But make sure it's the right size for your state.
Today's Connections answers
So, what are today's Connections answers for game #564?
Drumroll, please...
- 🟨 APPROXIMATELY: ABOUT, AROUND, LIKE, ROUGHLY
- 🟩 TREES: ELDER, PALM, PINE, SPRUCE
- 🟦 SIZABLE, AS AN AMOUNT: HANDSOME, HEALTHY, RESPECTABLE, TIDY
- 🟪 U.S. STATE ABBREVIATIONS, PER AP STYLE GUIDE: ALA, ARK, MISS, ORE
Today's puzzle was fun, and I found it to be relatively easy. I actually started with blue, making the connection to things being large with handsome, healthy and respectable. Tidy was a bit of a lucky guess, though it makes sense now that I know what it is.
I got the yellow second, and it felt like this could have been green because it was so straightforward. From there, I hit the green section and quickly noticed three obvious types of trees. I used an educated guess for the Elder as a type of tree and was correct.
For purple, I only got it because they were the last four. Even as an AP-trainer writer, I wouldn't have figured out U.S. State Abbreviations no matter how long I thought about it, so I'm glad it was the last four left.
Yesterday's Connections answers
- 🟨 CELESTIAL OBJECTS: COMET, MOON, PLANET, STAR
- 🟩 ARCHERS: CUPID, HAWKEYE, ROBIN HOODS, SAGITTARIUS
- 🟦 FEMALE ANIMALS: JENNY, NANNY, QUEEN, VIXEN
- 🟪 “S.N.L.” CAST MEMBERS: FEY, RUDOLPH, SHANNON, STRONG
Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Connections answers for game #563, which had a difficulty rating of 3.3 out of 5, according to the Connections Companion.
Yesterday's clues had a fun bait and switch, leading you to think it's Santa's reindeer. I quickly realized it was actually celestial objects for the first category and was on my way.
I immediately saw the connection to bow and arrow-toting characters and locked in the green category.
After that, it was a little tougher, but I got lucky putting together female things and through trial and error, got the female animals with only one mistake left. From there, I had four left, and I have to admit, I would have never gotten the last one without getting everything else first.
