Start with the spoiler-free hints. Go deeper only when you need to. Reveal answers on your own terms.
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.
It looks like ordinary computer hardware, which can pull you toward a false tech group. The actual tell is the redundant final word, not the device itself.
Because USB is a familiar initialism, this can feel like an abbreviation entry. But it is really a physical connection point for plugging in devices.
SAT reads as another abbreviation, so it tempts solvers toward the acronym set. The real connection lies in the final word's separate meaning.
A recognizable film phrase that hides its ending's second life as an action. The everyday meaning makes the wordplay easy to overlook.
These four phrases all mean the same thing: being given complete latitude to act. The group hides in plain sight because CARTE BLANCHE is high-register and BLANK CHECK feels transactional, but both are synonyms for FREE REIGN and FULL AUTHORITY.
All four are physical openings or bays on a computer that accept removable media or connectors. The category seems straightforward, but tech terms like OPTICAL DRIVE and USB PORT can distract from the more general insertion-point idea.
Each phrase pairs an initialism with a word that repeats what one of its letters already stands for, such as the M in ATM MACHINE. The puzzle turns a common usage error into a category.
In each phrase, the final word can be a verb for cutting or incising a surface: SCRIBE, CUT, SLICE, SCORE. The phrase meanings do not hint at the connection, making it feel invisible until you isolate the last word.
Wyna Liu loads the grid with initialisms — ATM, LCD, PIN, UPC, SAT, and USB — turning the Blue group into a sorting trap rather than an easy acronym grab. Purple hides four carving and slicing verbs in phrase endings, camouflaged by their ordinary meanings, while Green offers concrete hardware and Yellow provides cross-register synonyms. The overlap between tech terms and abbreviations is the central illusion.
a textbook decoy
requires lateral thinking
Solving the easiest group first reshapes how you read the entire board.
The editors reuse certain misdirection patterns. Learning to spot them saves guesses.
Purple is never what it first appears to be. Six structural patterns explain most of them.
Film titles, band names, and celebrity surnames hide in plain sight.
