NYT 'Connections' Hints And Answers For Sunday, May 25

Hey there, Connectors! I hope you’ve had a fantastic weekend so far.

As was the case yesterday, I’m going to continue testing of an extra level of hints, with one word from each group. This time around, I’m going to place them before the group titles.

I think that makes more sense, actually. They’re probably less spoiler-y than the group titles. Those give away a lot of information. The single words for each group just give a sense of which words definitely don’t go together. I’ll have to balance things in terms of red herrings, and I won’t always get it right. Yell at me if I don’t!

Meanwhile, we’ve just crossed the 100 subscriber mark already here at Pastimes! That’s a pretty cool milestone for something that’s only been around a couple of weeks. I haven’t mentioned this newsletter at all yet outside of Discord or my Forbes posts — not on BlueSky (where I have a decent number of followers), Facebook or to friends or family. I don’t really use Twitter anymore because, well, you know.

Anyway, thank you so much for your support and helping me get this thing started. Your feedback has been amazing, especially after I sent out the “Just Start” piece. I’m looking forward to seeing how the next essay lands for you all (and please send me any questions about AI and any comments you’d like to share about it!).

Also, I made a placeholder logo! It’s… not great haha. But It’s something for now and at least looks like the kind of concept I had in mind. It’s probably about the best I could do with my graphic design skills without relying on a certain technology that I won’t rant about just yet. :)

Before we begin, we have a great little community on Discord, where we chat about NYT Connections, the rest of the NYT games and all kinds of other stuff. Everyone who has joined has been lovely. It’s a fun hangout spot, and you’re more than welcome to join us.

Discord is also the best way to give me any feedback about the column, especially on the rare (or not-so-rare) occasions that I mess something up. I don’t look at Twitter much.

Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Sunday, May 25 are coming right up.

What Are Today’s Connections Hints?

Scroll slowly! Just after the hints for each of today’s Connections groups, I’ll reveal what the groups are without immediately telling you which words go into them.

Today’s 16 words are...

• DOUBLE

• HELIX

• SNAIL

• KING

• CONCH

• QUEEN

• TWIN

• ROOK

• ELECTRONIC

• JUNK

• ACE

• RINGER

• JACK

• LOBE

• CLONE

• CHAIN

And the first hints for today’s Connections groups are:

• Yellow group — you won't need a spade or join a club to find diamonds here

• Green group — lookalikes

• Blue group — auricle fashion

• Purple group — I must express that you're a first-class community

One Word From Each Connections Group

Here’s another set of hints. This time, I’ll reveal one word from each group.

Be warned: we’re starting to get into spoiler territory.

• Yellow group — QUEEN

• Green group — RINGER

• Blue group — LOBE

• Purple group — ELECTRONIC

What Are Today’s Connections Groups?

Need some extra help? 

We’re getting deep into spoiler territory here.

Today’s Connections groups are...

• Yellow group — playing cards

• Green group — doppelgänger

• Blue group — ear piercing sites

• Purple group — _____ mail

What Are Today’s Connections Answers?

Spoiler alert! Don’t scroll any further down the page until you’re ready to find out today’s Connections answers.

This is your final warning!

Today’s Connections answers are...

• Yellow group — playing cards (ACE, JACK, KING, QUEEN)

• Green group — doppelgänger (CLONE, DOUBLE, RINGER, TWIN)

• Blue group — ear piercing sites (CONCH, HELIX, LOBE, ROOK)

• Purple group — _____ mail (CHAIN, ELECTRONIC, JUNK, SNAIL)

It would have been a perfect game for win number 89 in a row, but for my carelessness. Here's how I fared:

🟪🟨🟨🟨 
🟨🟨🟨🟨 
🟩🟩🟩🟩 
🟦🟦🟦🟦 
🟪🟪🟪🟪

I do love a DOUBLE HELIX, so that was a fun reference. I felt like KING, QUEEN and ROOK were a red herring of chess pieces. My suspicions were founded when I got the yellows... after accidentally including ROOK instead of ACE at first. Whoops!

The greens were straightforward enough after that. I figured that SNAIL, LOBE, HELIX and CONCH were things with spirals. But! Just before I submitted those, it clicked that ENELCRONIS, SNAIL, JUNK and CHAIN were all types of mail.

I submitted the purples and was correct about my hunch. That left the blues to wrap things up. I was off the mark a bit there!

That’s all there is to it for today’s Connections clues and answers. I’ll be back over at Forbes for the Monday-Friday editions for the column. And if you haven’t subscribed to Pastimes already, definitely do that! It would be super sweet of you.

P.S. I really do love Apple Music's Sunday Morning playlist. It's my weekend wake-up sound. The selection of laidback tunes is frequently updated with new music, but there are some absolute classics on there.

Of course, one such track is "Easy" by The Commodores. It really is a terrific Sunday morning song:

Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Call someone you love!

On weekdays, you can find this column over at Forbes. Please follow my blog there for more coverage of NYT Connections and other word games, and even some video game news, insights and analysis. It helps me out a lot!

Sharing this column with other people who play Connections would be appreciated too. Also, subscribe to this newsletter if you haven’t already!