The May 19, 2025, Connections puzzle is game #708. Need a nudge before the answers? Start with the hints below; the complete groups follow in a clearly marked spoiler section.
Hints for Connections #708
- One group is made up of occasions that can raise money.
- Think of spaces you might land on in Monopoly.
- Three words point to whale anatomy; one is a specialist term for tissue in the forehead of a toothed whale.
- The last group works by sound: each word resembles the name of a part of the foot.
Spoiler: May 19 Connections answers
The sixteen words on the board were MELON, BALL, CHANCE, BAWL, SOUL, BLUBBER, FUNCTION, FLUKE, UTILITY, TOW, AVENUE, BENEFIT, FLIPPER, RAILROAD, GALA, and HEAL. The groups, attributed to Johnny Dee’s TechRadar guide published May 18, 2025, are:
| Color | Category | Words | Why they fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yellow | FUNDRAISING EVENT | BALL, BENEFIT, FUNCTION, GALA | Each can describe an event held to raise funds. |
| Green | SPACES ON A MONOPOLY BOARD | AVENUE, CHANCE, RAILROAD, UTILITY | Each is a named space or space type on a Monopoly board. |
| Blue | FEATURES OF A TOOTHED WHALE | BLUBBER, FLIPPER, FLUKE, MELON | Melon is tissue in the forehead of a toothed whale; the other words refer to whale anatomy. |
| Purple | HOMOPHONES OF PARTS OF THE FOOT | BAWL, HEAL, SOUL, TOW | They sound like BALL, HEEL, SOLE, and TOE, respectively. |
Why the trickiest groups work
MELON is whale anatomy
In the whale group, MELON is not a fruit clue: it names tissue in the forehead of a toothed whale. That specialist meaning connects it with BLUBBER, FLIPPER, and FLUKE.
The purple set depends on pronunciation
Read the words aloud and substitute the foot-related sound-alikes: BAWL becomes ball, HEAL becomes heel, SOUL becomes sole, and TOW becomes toe. The spellings differ, but the spoken words supply the connection.
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How Connections works
Connections is a daily New York Times word puzzle. Players sort sixteen terms into four groups of four. The groups have different color-coded difficulty levels, and a connection may rely on wordplay rather than a shared literal subject. That is why an apparent grouping can be a red herring: a word may fit more than one idea until the intended pattern becomes clear. The game is available through the NYT Games site on desktop and mobile, as described by TechRadar’s overview of Connections.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Source for this dated solution
The date and puzzle number, board words, categories, and answer groups above are attributed to Johnny Dee’s TechRadar guide to Connections for Monday, May 19, 2025, published May 18, 2025. The exact dated solution here is sourced to that guide; an accessible official NYT archive entry for #708 was not established.
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