Looking for clues for today's Connections answers? The Connections answers on March 25 for puzzle #653 are slightly easier than yesterday's puzzle, with the Connections Companion rating this puzzle's difficulty at 2.4 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, #652, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.
Spoilers lie ahead for Connections #653. 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: Bale, Crystal, Panda, Mud, Teddy, Tuxedo, Able, Day, Abel, Cal, A Bell, Oreo, Abe, Crossword, Bela, and Dick.
If you need hints to solve the groupings, then here are the themes of each, based on the order of difficulty:
- 🟨 Yellow: Black-and-white things
- 🟩 Green: Anagrams
- 🟦 Blue: U.S. Presidential Nicknames
- 🟪 Purple: Clear as ____
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: Get presidential as you collect black and white items that are anagrams, clear as day.
Today's Connections answers
So, what are today's Connections answers for game #653?
Drumroll, please...
- 🟨 Black-and-white things: Crossword, oreo, panda, tuxedo
- 🟩 Anagrams: Abel, able, bale, bela
- 🟦 U.S. Presidential nicknames: Abe, Cal, Dick, Teddy
- 🟪 Clear as ____: A bell, crystal, day, mud
I happened to be snacking on an oreo while doing this puzzle, so that's where I started.
I saw three other things that were black and white with panda, tuxedo and crossword. Yellow group down.
I snagged the purple group next but not with the thought process the label indicates. I saw mud and crystal and was thinking about spas. So, I had 'spa day' and was thinking that a bell is something you might here in a spa. My muddy mental connection shouldn't have worked but apparently it was crystal.
From there I snagged the anagrams of abel, able, bale and bela.
The blue category went last because I was thinking presidents with Abe (Abraham Lincoln), Dick (Richard Nixon) and Teddy (Theodore Roosevelt) but could not figure out what the fourth nickname was. I had forgotten that Calvin Coolidge had the strange 'Silent Cal' nickname, which was mostly blamed on his dry sense of humor. A fact I knew and was quickly reminded of as soon as the category went through. The worst feeling in this game.
Yesterday's Connections answers
- 🟨 Bad-smelling: Foul, Rank, Ripe, Sour
- 🟩 Unfluctuating: Constant, Stable, Level, Uniform
- 🟦 Who video games are made for, per ESRP ratings: Adults Only, Everyone, Mature, Teen
- 🟪 Things with layers: Earth, Henhouse, Onion, Photoshop
Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Connections answers for game #652, which had a difficulty rating of 2.6 out of 5, according to the Connections Companion.
I found today's puzzle to be easy. As a gamer, I quickly and easily figured out the ESRB ratings, which is a great way to start the puzzle. From there, I zeroed in on the yellow category, realizing it pushed me toward ways to say something smelled terrible.
I got a little stumped on the next batch of words, but I knew it had to be something relatively easy since I could target the green category. After a few shuffles, I figured out the green, which left just the purple category to clean up.
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