NYT Connections puzzle #562 was published on Tuesday, December 24, 2024. Below, you’ll find the 16-word grid, progressively stronger hints, and—after a clear spoiler warning—the complete groups and category names.
The Connections #562 grid
These were the 16 words in the December 24, 2024 puzzle:
| LIONS | TIGERS | BEARS | OH MY |
| DEAR | JAYS | BILLS | USE |
| BYE | BEES | PLEASE | CLOSE |
| TIGHT | GIMME | EASE | INTIMATE |
Hints, from least revealing to most revealing
Yellow-group hint
Follow the Yellow Brick Road.
Green-group hint
Think of a word meaning a close companion.
Blue-group hint
Say the words aloud and listen for plural letter names.
Purple-group hint
These words become familiar hit-song titles when each is repeated three times.
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Spoiler warning: the complete answers
The answer key is below. Stop here if you still want to solve #562 yourself.
Yellow — “LIONS AND TIGERS AND BEARS, OH MY!”
BEARS, LIONS, OH MY, TIGERS
The phrase from The Wizard of Oz is the intended connection. LIONS and TIGERS can look like sports-team names, but that association is a dead end for this group.
Green — “BELOVED, AS A FRIEND”
CLOSE, DEAR, INTIMATE, TIGHT
Each word can describe a cherished or close friendship.
Blue — “WORDS THAT SOUND LIKE PLURAL LETTERS”
BEES, EASE, JAYS, USE
Read aloud, these sound like the plural names of letters: B’s, A’s, J’s and U’s.
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BILLS, BYE, GIMME, PLEASE
Repeat each entry three times and it forms a recognizable song title: “Bills Bills Bills,” “Bye Bye Bye,” “Gimme Gimme Gimme” and “Please Please Please.”
How the puzzle’s difficulty is organized
TechRadar’s general description of Connections presents four color-coded groups, with green usually easiest, followed by yellow, blue and purple; it also describes a limit of four mistakes and elimination as a useful way to identify the final group. Those are guide-level descriptions rather than independently verified current New York Times policy.
For this grid, the most useful solving order is to spot the Wizard of Oz phrase, remove the friendship synonyms, say the remaining candidates aloud for the letter sounds, and use the last four words for the repeated-song-title group.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.About this archived puzzle
This is a retrospective solution for game #562 from December 24, 2024, not a report on the current day’s Connections puzzle. TechRadar published its guide on December 24, while Try Hard Guides published an independent cross-check on December 23; both identify the same date, puzzle number and four answer sets.
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