Searching for the Connections answers for Wednesday, April 2, 2025? This guide offers a collection of hints, strategies, and detailed explanations for today’s puzzles across all four categories. Caution: spoilers are included below for April 2, NYT Connections #661! If you’re after some clues (before revealing the solutions), keep reading!

For easy access to daily hints, consider bookmarking this page. Historical hints from past puzzles can also be found here, perfect for those wanting to revisit missed challenges.

Below, a series of subtle hints will guide you to today’s Connections answers, followed by themes and complete answers. Navigate through at your pace, only grabbing the clues you require!

Credit: Connections/NYT

Hints for Today’s Connections Themes

Here are some spoiler-free tips about the groupings in today’s puzzle:

• Yellow category – Unplanned or spontaneous actions.

• Green category – Classifications.

• Blue category – Shared last names among individuals.

• Purple category – Common terms that also refer to specific people or locations.

WARNING: Spoilers Ahead!

The answers are about to be disclosed. Proceed with caution if you’d like to avoid spoilers. (The complete solutions can be found a bit further down.)

Tricky Parts to Note

ROBIN and LARK aren’t references to birds.

VENUS has a sibling named Serena.

If planning a trip to NICE, brushing up on your language skills might be wise.

FANCY doesn’t imply “luxurious”; rather, it denotes a fleeting whim, e.g., “he creates homework from every fleeting FANCY.”

Categories for Today’s Connections

• Yellow: CAPRICE

• Green: ILK

• Blue: WILLIAMSES

• Purple: WORDS WITH DIFFERENT PRONUNCIATIONS AS PROPER NOUNS

DOUBLE WARNING: Solutions Below

Ready to discover today’s Connections answers? They are provided below.

What Words Belong to the Yellow Group?

The yellow grouping is often deemed the simplest. The theme for today’s yellow group is CAPRICE, featuring the words: FANCY, IMPULSE, LARK, WHIM.

What Words Belong to the Green Group?

The green grouping is typically the second-easiest. The theme for today’s green category is ILK, consisting of the words: KIND, LIKE, SORT, TYPE.

What Words Belong to the Blue Group?

The blue group is classified as the second-hardest. The theme for today’s blue category is WILLIAMSES, with the words: HANK, ROBIN, TENNESSEE, VENUS.

What Words Belong to the Purple Group?

The purple grouping represents the most challenging. The theme for today’s purple category is WORDS WITH DIFFERENT PRONUNCIATIONS AS PROPER NOUNS, featuring: HERB, JOB, NICE, READING.

Solving Today’s Connections

TENNESSEE and ROBIN hinted at a “people sharing the last name Williams” category. Indeed, this includes HANK, the musician, and VENUS, the tennis star. 🟦

The words TYPE, LIKE, KIND, and SORT all describe categories or classifications. 🟩

Next, WHIM, FANCY, LARK, and IMPULSE relate to sudden or fleeting desires, such as “I embarked on that spontaneous trip on a WHIM.” 🟨

This leaves NICE, JOB, HERB, and READING. Time to experiment with associated words! HERBivore, READING lists, READING tasks, assigned READING, JOB fair, fresh HERB. Noteworthy.

NICE and READING could also be names of towns (in France and Pennsylvania, respectively), but JOB or HERB probably don’t refer to locations.

The conclusion! 🟪 Ah, the theme of WORDS PRONOUNCED DIFFERENTLY AS PROPER NOUNS. I was right regarding NICE and READING, pronounced as “neese” and “redding” when referring to cities. JOB presumably links to the Biblical character (pronounced “globe”) and HERB can also be a first name, pronounced with a voiced “h.”

Connections
Puzzle #661
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟪🟪🟪🟪

Guide to Playing Connections

A comprehensive guide to playing Connections is available, but here’s a quick overview of the rules:

Start by accessing the Connections game either on the New York Times website or within their Games app (formerly the Crossword app). The game board presents 16 tiles, each displaying a word or phrase. Your task is to identify a set of four tiles that share a common theme. They often represent similar types of things (e.g., RAIN, SLEET, HAIL, SNOW are all forms of precipitation), but sometimes involve wordplay (e.g., BUCKET, GUEST, TOP TEN, and WISH correspond to different lists: bucket list, guest list, etc.).

Select four items and press the Submit button. If your selection is correct, the category and color will be revealed (Yellow is easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple). If incorrect, you’ll have another opportunity to guess.

Victory occurs only when all four groups are correctly identified. However, if four guesses are wrong before completion, the game concludes, and the answers are shown.

Winning Strategies for Connections

The key to succeeding in Connections is recognizing that groupings are intentionally tricky. Anticipate overlapping associations. For instance, one puzzle included six breakfast items: BACON, EGG, PANCAKE, OMELET, WAFFLE, and CEREAL. However, BACON turned out to belong to a group connected to artists along with CLOSE, MUNCH, and WHISTLER, while EGG related to things that commonly come in dozens (alongside JUROR, ROSE, and MONTH). Thus, only hit “submit” after confirming that your selected four consist of exclusively those four items.

If stumped, a helpful tactic is to identify words that seem entirely disconnected from the rest. For instance, if WHISTLER brings to mind the artwork known as “Whistler’s Mother,” you may be on the right track. Upon solving that riddle, researching whether there was a painter named Close helped, as Close did not fit any obvious categories either.

When stuck, reading a few assisting hints can also provide the necessary push—hence the daily shared tips. Be sure to return tomorrow for the next puzzle!