Today's NYT Connections: Hints To Help Solve Today's Game, June 3, 2024

New day, new Connections! Today's puzzle has quite a few tricky ones so if you've hit a wall and need some help, that's understandable. But don't worry, we're here to give you everything you need to climb over it or smash right through. If you're new to the game, here's how it works: Connections tests your ability to identify the strongest links between a group of words. Your goal is to sort 16 words into four groups of four by finding the common threads, all without making more than four mistakes.

Today's puzzle (Connections for June 3, 2024) has a difficulty rating of 2.8 out of 5, just like yesterday's puzzle, but this guide will make it much easier. Scroll down to see subtle hints that will nudge you toward the solutions. If you don't mind the spoilers, or if you can't afford another mistake, you'll find all the answers in the last section.

Each Connections puzzle features a 16-word grid from which you're supposed to make four groups of words that share something in common. These categories typically involve trivia (think geography or pop culture), or semantics (think homonyms or synonyms). Each group is color-coded according to its difficulty level. The yellow group is the easiest and most obvious connection, green and blue are medium, and purple is the trickiest of the bunch — usually super-specific, abstract themes that might leave you scratching your head, even after you've figured out the answers. Depending on who you ask, that's the fun of it.

Technically, you only need to figure out three groups — the fourth will naturally be left over after 12 words are eliminated. If you're finding it difficult to make a connection, you can shuffle the board to rearrange the words and make it easier to spot one. Click on four words and hit Submit to see if you've guessed a group correctly. 

If you're right, those words will be removed from the board and displayed in a color-coded bar above, along with the key to the category. You might get a message telling you that you're one word away from a connection if you've selected three correct words, but it's up to you to figure out which one to swap. If you're wrong, that counts as a mistake, and you'll lose the game if you make four of those. The hints below should help you prevent that from happening.

Here are the 16 words on the grid for today's Connections #358:

• SCHOOL

• SPOOL

• WAX

• SOLAR PANEL

• MOVIE

• THREAD

• HONEYCOMB

• WIND

• LASER

• BALL

• WRAP

• VITAMIN

• COIL

• SPREADSHEET

• ORGANISM

• PLUCK

These hints might help you sort them correctly:

1. Yellow group: Defuzzing methods

2. Green group: These go round and round

3. Blue group: Prisons also fall in this category

4. Purple group: One-letter prefix; fill in the gap

On the topic of colors, watch out for today's red herrings: WIND and SOLAR PANEL are not the pair you think they are. Also, pay HONEYCOMB and WAX no mind — they're none of your beeswax.

If you're still struggling, here's a full reveal of all four categories. They might help you spot connections you couldn't see before. Here they are:

1. Yellow group: REMOVE, AS BODY HAIR

2. Green group: TWIST AROUND

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3. Blue group: THINGS MADE OF CELLS

4. Purple group: B – ___

Still having trouble connecting the dots? See the section below for the answer reveal. If you'd rather not have the answers handed to you, this is the point where you stop scrolling and get the gears cranking — all the spoilers are ahead.

Here are the answers to today's Connections puzzle (#358):

1. Yellow group: Remove, as body hair (LASER, PLUCK, THREAD, WAX)

2. Green group: Twist around (COIL, SPOOL, WIND, WRAP)

3. Blue group: Things made of cells (HONEYCOMB, ORGANISM, SOLAR PANEL, SPREADSHEET)

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4. Purple group: B – __ (BALL, MOVIE, SCHOOL, VITAMIN)

There you have it! Today's Connections Companion article came through with the hints in the header image as usual. You'll notice the honeycomb doubling as spreadsheet cells as illustrations of the blue group, and the working bee a nod to the purple group. Even the marker is purple.

We solved the puzzle in order of difficulty today: yellow first, then green, then blue and purple. The blue group tripped us up a bit because the connection just wasn't obvious enough, and it was pure luck that we got it right on the second try. And like yesterday, the purple group eluded us until the end. We hope you make it to the finish line with as few mistakes as possible.

We put these guides up every day, so you can check back in whenever you get stuck on a puzzle. See yesterday's puzzle answers if you need to catch up. If you're still playing the NYT's other popular game, Wordle, here's a list of the best Wordle starter words to help you solve the puzzle more easily. See you tomorrow!