Spoiler warning: The complete solutions for NYT Connections puzzle #688 appear below. If you are still solving, use the color-coded hints first and stop before the answer section.
Tuesday, April 29, 2025, was Connections puzzle #688. The 16 tiles divide into four groups: cooking mixtures, objects seen at a dinner party, things to climb and meanings of “diamond.”
Hints for Connections #688
Yellow hint
Think of baking blends and other cooking mixtures.
Green hint
These are items you might see on a table at a formal dinner party.
Blue hint
Each word describes something you can climb or use to move vertically.
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Purple hint
Look for four different meanings or references of the word “diamond.”
The 16 tiles
LADDER, BATTER, SUIT, CANDLESTICK, INFIELD, ROPE, PASTE, PITCHER, GEMSTONE, MOUNTAIN, PLATE, MIXTURE, TREE, DOUGH, RHOMBUS, PLACEMAT.
Answers for Tuesday, April 29
Connections requires you to sort 16 words into four groups of four. Yellow is generally the most accessible group and purple the most difficult; you can make up to four incorrect guesses.
| Color | Category | Words | Why they fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yellow | COOKING CONCOCTIONS | BATTER, DOUGH, MIXTURE, PASTE | Each is a cooking or baking mixture. |
| Green | SEEN ON A TABLE AT A DINNER PARTY | CANDLESTICK, PITCHER, PLACEMAT, PLATE | These are familiar dinner-table items. |
| Blue | THINGS TO CLIMB | LADDER, MOUNTAIN, ROPE, TREE | All can be climbed, although a rope can also be used to climb. |
| Purple | WHAT “DIAMOND” CAN REFER TO | GEMSTONE, INFIELD, RHOMBUS, SUIT | “Diamond” can mean a gemstone, a baseball infield, a rhombus-shaped figure or a card suit. |
Why the purple group is tricky
The hardest connection is based on polysemy rather than a shared object. A diamond may be a precious gemstone; in baseball, the infield is called the diamond; in geometry, a diamond shape is a rhombus; and in playing cards, diamonds are one of the four suits. The baseball and geometric meanings can be easy to overlook before the more familiar gemstone and card references become apparent.
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A practical solving path
- Start with the most direct physical set: CANDLESTICK, PITCHER, PLACEMAT and PLATE are all dinner-table objects.
- Separate the obvious cooking vocabulary: BATTER, DOUGH, MIXTURE and PASTE.
- Group the climbable things: LADDER, MOUNTAIN, ROPE and TREE.
- Use the remaining four tiles—GEMSTONE, INFIELD, RHOMBUS and SUIT—to identify the four meanings of “diamond.”
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