Today's Connections Hints and Answers for December 15, 2024 (Puzzle #553)

If you feel like you're struggling to get through today Connections puzzle, you might want to check out some tips and suggestions. This one is a little easier in my opinion than some of the other recent ones, but there are still some tricky parts and places where it would be easy to get stuck. To help you solve it, here are all the tips and tricks you need to get through it without falling into a trap.

The NYT Spelling Bee puzzle is a fun option for those who want to try something similar, but with a different style. It's a puzzle where you have to spell the words yourself. There are usually around 7 to 10 different words you can find and make the letters given to you by the puzzle. If you can figure out every word, you'll score much higher and you can brag about it to your scheming friends.

Today's Connections Category Tips

DECEMBER 15 #553

If you need some hints for today's puzzle, you can find everything you need here. This puzzle has some interesting word combinations and some words that are the correct answer but may not seem so at first glance. As usual, the purple category is the one that will probably make you scratch your head a littleand that is as true today as any other day.

• A category is about something you use to make something better than it was before
• One category is about words used to describe not doing well at something
• A category is about how you might look at a book when you buy it in the store
• A category is about names that are missing a crucial component

If you still need help finishing today's puzzle, you can do so using the category names in the box below. Or you can jump straight to answers if you want.

	SPICES
	POOR PERFORMANCE
	SLIDE, LIKE PAGES
	POP SINGERS WITHOUT “S”

Today's Connections Answers

DECEMBER 15 #553

Yellow Answers: Revealed and Explained

This category seems like it should be obvious, and for the most part, it was. However, MACE can be a spice or a weapon like a FLAIL. There are also SPEAR and TANK to face, These could all be weapons. I'm also not as familiar with using MACE as a seasoning, which may have made this a little more difficult for me. SEA is also something that appears to be a seasoning, although I don't think it really is. Hopefully you find this one before you notice all the potential weapons.

Green Answers: Revealed and Explained

If something is underperforming, then it is a FLOP. While this is mostly true in the world of entertainment, it can be true anywhere. I think the difficult word for me in this category was TANK, simply because I had more difficulty dissociating this word from other meanings. FLOUNDER could also be a fish, but since there were no other fish words floating around, it made more sense. Hopefully you can avoid the mistakes I made with this one.

Blue Answers: Revealed and Explained

This was my favorite category today, in part due to my undying love of going to bookstores to browse books I can't afford. I also really like the word LEAF, since the page of a book is often also called a sheet. THUMB is my least favorite, it implies that you lick your thumb before going through the pages and I just don't like that image. RIFFLE, on the other hand, is a really fun word to write, say, and think about. Anyway, this category was great today.

Purple Answers: Revealed and Explained

This last one was the hardest for me, and potentially even for people who like pop music a lot more than I do. Unless you see them all together and think of it with the “S”, then you won't necessarily understand them. It's a difficult category to get right, as the purple category tends to be, and it's easier to get when you've finished the rest. With a little luck, however, I think you could get this one without reaching the end.

Other games like connections

If you still need to solve this riddle, you can get it by checking one of the puzzles below.