Start with the spoiler-free clues. Reveal the answers only when you've truly given up.
A direction for each group — no names given.
What kind of thinking each group asks for.
Pointed nudges on the words built to fool you.
Every Connections board plants a few decoys. Here are today's, and why they pull you the wrong way.
Looks like it could be a fruit, but it actually belongs to the homophones group with PAIR, PARE, and PÈRE.
Could be mistaken for a father or a religious title, but it's an MLB team name.
A common color word might seem to fit in a fruit or homophone category, but it's an MLB team.
PAIR, PARE, PEAR, and PÈRE all sound alike but are spelled differently. This group is the easiest because the connection is auditory and immediately recognizable.
BLOW, CRACK, POP, and SPLIT all describe things breaking or bursting. Each word can function as a verb or noun related to a rupture, making this a straightforward thematic group.
PADRE, RED, ROYAL, and TWIN are all team nicknames from Major League Baseball. The tricky part is that PADRE looks like a foreign word, and TWIN is a common noun, but they're all familiar to baseball fans.
CHEAP (PEACH), EARP (PEAR), LUMP (PLUM), and WIKI (KIWI) are all anagrams of fruit names. This is the hardest because it requires rearranging letters and thinking of fruits, with no visual clue on the board.
a textbook decoy
requires lateral thinking
