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Today's Connections Hints & Answers For May 16, 2025 (Puzzle #705)
An underlying theme in today’s Connections puzzle creates a break between categories, making the right answers trickier to find than you may expect. The ideas between the natural and modern world cause a shift that took me some time to figure out. Even without following strict concepts around vague themes, you may be fooled by how similar some words in today’s puzzle seem to match without creating a solution.
Those trying to solve today’s puzzle only have four chances to make a mistake before losing. This is one less mistake than the daily NYT Wordle puzzle, so take your time to think out how each word could fit together. Visualize how words look, any similarities in how they’re structured, or search for definitions of phrases to give you the best head start for forming groups.
Today’s Connections Category Hints
May 16 #705
I was able to solve today’s puzzle by taking a careful approach and noticing which terms stood out the most. Some phrases in the puzzle today are very different from any others, allowing you to get the idea behind one or two categories early. By getting some easy word groups out of the way, you’ll have more chances to figure out what connections define the more complex terms in teh puzzle.
Anyone struggling to find the categories in today’s puzzle should use these helpful hints to get started:
- One category is about things related to living things that make up a forest.
- One category is about things related to terms used to describe something ending.
- One category is about things related to an animal that gets mad at the color red.
- One category is about things related to terms that have an important type of item used for building in their name.
Related
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The Letter Boxed game for the New York Times mobile app asks you to connect letters to form words while using various strategies to win quickly.
If you want to go all out with some of your clue-searching, you should look at the category names to get some extra help. There are also spoilers for each category if you find yourself needing to solve a single category to finish up.
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KINDS OF PLANTS |
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DISCONTINUE |
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ASSOCIATED WITH BULLS |
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ENDING WITH BUILDING MATERIALS |
Today’s Connections Answers
May 16 #705
Yellow Answers: Revealed & Explained
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KINDS OF PLANTS |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
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HERB |
SHRUB |
TREE |
VINE |
This was the easiest part of the puzzle for me to solve, as words like HERB and VINE were very different from the other phrases being used. I immediately saw that TREE, SHRUB, and HERB all refer to various plants you might find in a forest or somewhere with a lot of greenery. To follow that logic, trees sometimes have one or several VINEs crawling on them, making that word perfect to complete this category.
Green Answers: Revealed & Explained
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DISCONTINUE |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
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DISSOLVE |
END |
SCRAP |
SUNSET |
When you END a project or SCRAP it, you have to DISSOLVE whatever team was working on it. This has happened to me in work settings before, so the relationship behind those terms were nothing new to me. That being said, it took me awhile to realize that the SUNSET period of a project was a phrase used to describe that era of something ending, making it the best word for the right answer.
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8 Vertex Strategies To Quickly Solve The Picture
The New York Times Vertex game asks you to form a picture by connecting dots, but you have to understand the image to solve this puzzle quickly.
Blue Answers: Revealed & Explained
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ASSOCIATE WITH BULLS |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
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MICHAEL JORDAN |
RODEO |
TAURUS |
WALL STREET |
This category was difficult for me to figure out, as I assumed that MICHAEL JORDAN referred to Michael B. Jordan, a prolific actor. This would have grouped him in with HOLLYWOOD and KUBRICK. However, I noticed that RODEO refers to riding bulls for sport, while TAURUS is a astrology sign with a bull as its symbol. Since Michael Jordan was one of the best basketball players for the Chicago Bulls, WALL STREET was the last right answer to follow this animal-focused trend.
Purple Answers: Revealed & Explained
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ENDING WITH BUILDING MATERIALS |
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|---|---|---|---|
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HOLLYWOOD |
HOURGLASS |
KUBRICK |
NEUROPLASTIC |
I already had HOLLYWOOD and KUBRICK together when I began today’s puzzle, as Stanley Kubrick is one of the most well-known directors from Hollywood. No other phrases fit a Hollywood theme though, so I looked to how the remaining words in the puzzle were structured. I saw that NEUROPLASTIC had the word “plastic” in it, with “glass” in HOURGLASS, “wood” in HOLLYWOOD, and “brick” in KUBRICK following suit to complete the theme.
Other Games Like Connections
If you are looking for another puzzle to play, check out one of the ones in the box below.
- Released
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June 12, 2023
- ESRB
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e
- Developer(s)
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The New York Times Company
- Publisher(s)
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The New York Times Company
