Hints
Today’s Connections puzzle leans hard into sound and surface-level misdirection. The catch: a bunch of words that look musical first end up fitting neatly into very specific “job descriptions” for music, while another set pretends to be ordinary phrases before you notice the pattern.
Here are four spoiler-light nudges, from easiest to hardest.
Yellow (easy): These are drinkware pieces you might spot at a bar or on a shelf of glassware.
Green: Think of a verb meaning “to mess around,” but specifically with the preposition included in the answer you’re assembling.
Blue: These are common instructions you’d expect to see in music—directions for how to perform.
Purple (tough): Each solution ends with a word or synonym meaning “right now.” In other words, the last part of the answer is doing the heavy lifting.
Answers
Yellow group (Glassware): coupe, flute, stein, tumbler
Green group (Mess around (with)): fiddle, mess, play, tinker
Blue group (Music performance directions): allegro, forte, largo, piano
Purple group (Ending in synonyms for “ASAP”): bassoon, Belfast, Nesquick, thermostat
If you got stuck on the purple set, try a quick “suffix test”: look at the words that feel like they should be followed by something meaning “immediately,” and see which ones naturally click into that trailing idea. Once you spot the “right now” rhyme, the rest usually falls into place.
