Looking for clues for today's Connections answers? The Connections answers on October 27 for puzzle #869 are a bit easier than yesterday's puzzle, with the Connections Companion rating this puzzle's difficulty at 2.3 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.
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: Only, Connect, Olive, Branch, Fab, Fan, Just, Twist, Fantastic, Simply, Cherry, Spread, Radiate, Mint, Petit, and Merely
If you need hints to solve the groupings, then here are the themes of each, based on the order of difficulty:
- 🟨 Yellow: Emanate
- 🟩 Green: In the slightest
- 🟦 Blue: Cocktail garnishes
- 🟪 Purple: ____ four
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: Grab a drink (but just a pinch) before flowing to the four corners.
Today's Connections answers
So, what are today's Connections answers for game #869?
Drumroll, please...
- 🟨 Emanate: Branch, Fan, Radiate, Spread
- 🟩 In the slightest: Just, Merely, Only, Simply
- 🟦 Cocktail garnishes: Cherry, Mint, Olive, Twist
- 🟪 ___ four: Connect, Fab, Fantastic, Petit
The green category was so easy today with Just, Merely, Only, and Simply that I would have bet money on it being yellow.
I found another gaggle of synonyms next, which I also suspected was yellow (surely I couldn't be wrong twice in a row, right?). But while I got Branch, Radiate, and Spread, I first struck out trying to throw Connect in with the rest of them before I realized Fan was the clue I needed.
That had me thinking about different uses for Connect beyond the straightforward definition, which brought Connect Four to mind. I tried to find other clues that were often paired with the number four, and wound up with Fab, Fantastic, and Petit for purple.
That left Cherry, Mint, Olive, and Twist left as today's rote fill for blue.
Yesterday's Connections answers
- 🟨 Kinds of instruments: Brass, Percussion, String, Wind
- 🟩 Words in a famous Muhammad Ali Quote: Bee, Butterfly, Float, Sting
- 🟦 Kinds of contests: Beauty, Popularity, Staring, Talent
- 🟪 Words with diminutive suffixes: Doggy, Droplet, Kitchenette, Starling
Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Connections answers for game #868, which had a difficulty rating of 2.5 out of 5, according to the Connections Companion.
I went down the line today, starting with what I remembered from my friends in band class growing up with Brass, Percussion, String, and Wind for yellow.
After that came green with Bee, Butterfly, Float, and Sting, which took me a while to recognize because I thought it might be a red herring.
I figured Popularity, Beauty, and Talent were all related to contests, but it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize Staring could fit among them.
That left purple as today's rote fill with Doggy, Droplet, Kitchenette, and Starling. I'll admit, even though I have an English degree, I had to look up what the heck a diminutive suffix is. You learn something new every day!
Connections tips — how to win at Connections
There are two ways to play Connections, get the answers as you solve them or solve for the hardest group, Purple, first.
For either playstyle, the best tip I can give is to not be afraid of the shuffle button, especially if you’ve solved a set but you’re certain it isn’t the Purple group. You can shuffle the grid until your solved quartet is in a somewhat staked off area.
For the purple group, you can expect to see a handful of category types: words missing a letter, homophones, words with specific suffixes or prefixes, and [blank] word (or word [blank]). There are others, but this is a majority of what you’ll see. It can help to look for purple connections through one of those lenses.
If you’re not hunting for purple specifically, then the best advice I have is to look for smaller connections. For example, Riddler and Joker are Batman villains. Once you’ve grouped that duo together it’s easier to find another set.
Finally, watch out for traps. Occasionally, the Connections makers like to throw in a set of words that should seem very obvious to most people. But picking them can give you a strike, something you want to save for when you aren’t really sure between a couple of clues.
The tricky bit is that sometimes the very obvious foursome is actually one of the answers (usually the yellow or green levels).
One way to work around this is to note the four clues you think are an obvious set. Highlight them by selecting the words but don’t hit submit. From there take a second look around the grid to see if anything else stands out to you.
Often these super obvious sets are actually individually spread out between the four groups. So, if you see Wick, Neo, Ted and Mnemonic, you might immediately think of Keanu Reeves movies, but it's a trick. Instead, use the individual words as launching points to discover other connections.
If you're new to the game you should also take a look at our How to play Connections guide.
Got some thoughts about today's puzzle you want to share? Email us at scott.younker@futurenet.com or alyse.stanley@futurenet.com to get in touch.
