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Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minuteNYT Connections #688, published Tuesday, April 29, 2025, groups the grid into cooking preparations, formal dinner-table items, things to climb, and meanings of “diamond.” Use the hints below before revealing the full solution.
Need help with NYT Connections #688? The puzzle dated Tuesday, April 29, 2025 groups its words into cooking preparations, formal dinner-table items, things people climb, and meanings of “diamond.” The trickiest parts are the broad word mixture and a tempting baseball connection involving batter, pitcher, and infield.
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NYT Connections #688 hints for April 29, 2025
Try these clues from yellow to purple before looking at the answers:
- Yellow: These can be cooking or baking preparations.
- Green: You might see these items on a formal dinner table.
- Blue: These are things a person can climb.
- Purple: Each can be represented or described by the word “diamond.”
Still solving? Look for the cooking group first. One member is a deliberately broad term rather than an obviously culinary word. Also be careful with the apparent baseball group: it is a decoy.
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⚠️ Spoiler warning: The 16 words and complete answers appear below. Stop here if you only wanted hints.
The 16 words in Connections #688
LADDER · BATTER · SUIT · CANDLESTICK · INFIELD · ROPE · PASTE · PITCHER · GEMSTONE · MOUNTAIN · PLATE · MIXTURE · TREE · DOUGH · RHOMBUS · PLACEMAT
NYT Connections answers for April 29, 2025
Yellow: Cooking concoctions
BATTER · DOUGH · MIXTURE · PASTE
Batter and dough are familiar baking preparations, while paste can describe a thick cooking mixture. Mixture is the broadest word in this group, which makes it easy to dismiss as a generic noun. Read in a culinary context, however, it completes the set.
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CANDLESTICK · PITCHER · PLACEMAT · PLATE
A candlestick may provide table lighting, a pitcher can hold or serve drinks, a placemat protects or decorates the table, and a plate is used to serve food. Together, these are ordinary objects found in a formal dining setup.
Blue: Things to climb
LADDER · MOUNTAIN · ROPE · TREE
A ladder and rope can help someone climb, while a mountain and tree are natural structures that people climb. The category uses “things to climb” broadly, allowing both climbing equipment and climbable objects or terrain.
Purple: What “diamond” can refer to
GEMSTONE · INFIELD · RHOMBUS · SUIT
A diamond can be a gemstone, and a rhombus is commonly drawn in a diamond shape. In baseball, the area formed by the four bases is called the infield or baseball diamond. In a deck of cards, diamonds are one of the four suits.
The baseball trap in Connections #688
The puzzle seems to offer an attractive sports-related group: BATTER, PITCHER, and INFIELD all clearly relate to baseball. That connection is real, but it is not the intended category because it contains only three words.
The fourth apparent baseball clue, CANDLESTICK, may reinforce the misdirection. It can evoke Candlestick Park, the former San Francisco baseball stadium, but in this puzzle it belongs with the dinner-table objects. INFIELD, meanwhile, must be saved for the purple category because it is one meaning of “diamond.”
How to solve the grid
- Start with BATTER, DOUGH, and PASTE. They strongly suggest cooking or baking.
- Test MIXTURE as the fourth word. It is less specific, but “cooking mixtures” is the intended connection.
- Spot the table setting. PITCHER, PLACEMAT, and PLATE point toward dinner. Add CANDLESTICK rather than following the baseball decoy.
- Use the remaining climbing words. LADDER, MOUNTAIN, ROPE, and TREE form a clean group.
- Read the final four together. GEMSTONE, INFIELD, RHOMBUS, and SUIT all connect to “diamond” in different ways.
How difficult was Connections #688?
Difficulty is subjective. One contemporary guide reported a Connections Companion rating of 3.3 out of 5, while another described its own solving experience as easy. The puzzle is probably best described as moderate: the cooking and climbing groups become clear with the right reading, but the baseball decoy and the broad word mixture can delay a solution.
More puzzles after today’s Connections
If you enjoy Connections but want an offline option, Puzzle Mania!: Wordle, Connections, Spelling Bee, Minis and More! is a 224-page hardcover collection from The New York Times Games and Joel Fagliano. Its publisher describes it as a physical book containing new spins on several NYT digital games, including Connections, making it a relevant screen-free companion for word-game fans.
Another dedicated collection, Connections: Find the Common Threads in 100+ Puzzles of Wit and Wordplay by The New York Times Games and Wyna Liu, is listed with an October 27, 2026 publication date. It should therefore be treated as forthcoming or preorder-eligible rather than as an already released book; availability should be checked before purchasing.
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Which Connections puzzle is this?
This article covers Connections #688 from April 29, 2025. It is not the separate puzzle numbered #1,053 that appeared on April 29, 2026. The number and date combination matters because search results can otherwise mix the two puzzles together.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Frequently Asked Questions
What date was Connections #688?
NYT Connections #688 was published on Tuesday, April 29, 2025. It is different from puzzle #1,053, which appeared on April 29, 2026.
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What was the purple category in Connections #688?
The purple category is “What ‘diamond’ can refer to”: GEMSTONE, INFIELD, RHOMBUS, and SUIT.
What was the trap in Connections #688?
The baseball-looking words are BATTER, PITCHER, and INFIELD, but they do not form a category. INFIELD belongs with the other meanings of “diamond,” while CANDLESTICK belongs with the dinner-table items.
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The Bottom Line
The answers for NYT Connections #688 on April 29, 2025, are BATTER, DOUGH, MIXTURE, PASTE; CANDLESTICK, PITCHER, PLACEMAT, PLATE; LADDER, MOUNTAIN, ROPE, TREE; and GEMSTONE, INFIELD, RHOMBUS, SUIT. The main traps are the broad word mixture and the false baseball grouping.
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