NYT Connections Answers (May 28): Today's Puzzle Brings Swagger, Spells, & A Twist Of Wellness
Connections requires solvers to group 16 seemingly unrelated words into four sets of four based on hidden themes.
NYT Connections Answers: New York Times' wildly popular puzzle Connections returned today with its 716th edition, testing players’ vocabulary, reasoning, and pattern-recognition skills. Released on Wednesday, May 28, the daily brain-teaser featured a fresh 4x4 word grid and left many scratching their heads over sneaky overlaps and misleading links.
The game, known for its mind-bending categories, requires solvers to group 16 seemingly unrelated words into four sets of four based on hidden themes. But with words like "Swagger", "Witchcraft", and "Tennis" in play, today’s edition was anything but straightforward.
Hint Drop: From ‘Witchcraft’ to ‘Friendship’
Struggling solvers were not left entirely in the dark. The day’s official hints provided just enough breadcrumbs to tempt puzzle fans toward the right answers without outright spoiling the fun. Here's what the clues teased:
- Yellow: Find ways to impress people
- Green: Describe feeling 'excellent'
- Blue: Wear it on your wrist
- Purple: Look for fields of knowledge to engage in
A couple of strategic nudges followed, revealing that the word “Showboat” belonged to the Yellow group, “Ok” was in Green, “Friendship” slotted into Blue, and “Medicine” sat in Purple. A special note warned players: “‘Witchcraft’ and ‘charm’ are in different groups,” and the three shortest words were not connected to each other.
Today’s Themes Revealed
For those who found themselves spinning in circles or exceeding the game’s limit of three wrong guesses, the official themes and answers offered closure. The four categories for Connections #716 were:
- Yellow – Be Ostentatious: Grandstand, Posture, Showboat, Swagger
- Green – Copacetic: Fine, Hunky-Dory, Ok, Swell
- Blue – Kinds Of Bracelets: Charm, Friendship, Id, Tennis
- Purple – Things You Can Practice: Law, Medicine, Self-Care, Witchcraft
How the Game Works
In case you’re new to the game, Connections challenges players to decipher four groupings of four words that share a common link. A correct set locks in automatically, but make four mistakes and the game ends — revealing the answers and shattering your winning streak. Each group is colour-coded by difficulty: Yellow (Easiest), Green (Easy), Blue (Medium), and Purple (Hardest).
It’s deceptively simple — until it’s not. Themes often throw curveballs, with plausible but incorrect groupings (called red herrings) designed to mislead.
Today’s puzzle was a prime example of that misdirection, with several words like "Charm" and "Witchcraft" appearing to belong together, only to split across entirely different categories.
If you haven’t played yet, the puzzle is still live — click here to give it a try and see if you can connect the dots faster than the rest.
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