NYT Connections #658 was published on Sunday, March 30, 2025. Below you’ll find spoiler-light hints first, followed by the complete groups and an explanation of the puzzle’s main trap. Be careful not to confuse it with the March 30, 2026 puzzle, which was #1023.
Need the short version? The four groups in NYT Connections #658 are AVERAGE, PICTURED ON THE U.S. GREAT SEAL, PROPER NOUNS IN BROADWAY MUSICAL TITLES THAT ARE SPOKEN PHRASES, and ___ MAN. The biggest trap is the tempting golf group of EAGLE, BIRDIE, BOGEY, and PAR.
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The 16 words in Connections #658
Before checking the hints or answers, here is the complete board from Sunday, March 30, 2025:
- MEAN
- EAGLE
- STANDARD
- SPOKES
- GENTLE
- BIRDIE
- YANKEES
- PAR
- CRAFTS
- ARROWS
- SHIELD
- DOLLY
- NORM
- OLIVE BRANCH
- KATE
- BOGEY
Spoiler-light hints
Connections groups are color-coded by expected difficulty: yellow is generally the most approachable, followed by green, blue, and purple. If you want to keep solving, use these clues without reading the answer key yet.
#1 Best Overall
- Yellow: Something that means “average” or “typical.”
- Green: Images or objects shown on a famous U.S. emblem.
- Blue: Names appearing in Broadway musical titles that are spoken phrases.
- Purple: Add the same word after each entry.
Connections #658 answers
Yellow: AVERAGE
MEAN, NORM, PAR, STANDARD
“Mean” is the familiar mathematical term for an average, while “norm” can describe what is usual or typical. “Par” can mean an average or expected standard, and “standard” refers to the usual or accepted level. The words do not all work as exact mathematical synonyms, so the broader ideas of average and typicality matter here.
Green: PICTURED ON THE U.S. GREAT SEAL
ARROWS, EAGLE, OLIVE BRANCH, SHIELD
These are visual elements associated with the Great Seal of the United States: the eagle holds an olive branch and arrows, and a shield appears on its breast. The wording can make the entries seem like separate patriotic, military, or national-symbol clues, but they belong together because they are pictured on the seal.
Blue: PROPER NOUNS IN BROADWAY MUSICAL TITLES THAT ARE SPOKEN PHRASES
BIRDIE, DOLLY, KATE, YANKEES
Each word appears in a well-known musical title that is phrased like something someone might say:
Rank #2
- BIRDIE — Bye Bye Birdie
- DOLLY — Hello, Dolly!
- KATE — Kiss Me, Kate
- YANKEES — Damn Yankees
The connection is not simply “things related to birds,” “women’s names,” or “a baseball team.” The key is recognizing the words inside titles that resemble spoken phrases.
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Purple: ___ MAN
BOGEY, CRAFTS, GENTLE, SPOKES
Add MAN to each entry:
- BOGEY → bogeyman
- CRAFTS → craftsman
- GENTLE → gentleman
- SPOKES → spokesman
Some of these are normally written as one word, while “spokesman” is a fixed term formed from the same idea. This is the puzzle’s most wordplay-heavy group.
Why this puzzle is tricky
The golf decoy
The most obvious false group is EAGLE, BIRDIE, BOGEY, PAR. All four are golf terms, which makes the association feel complete. But Connections often rewards finding a more specific connection than the first plausible one.
Those words are deliberately distributed across three official groups:
- EAGLE belongs with the elements pictured on the Great Seal.
- BIRDIE belongs with the Broadway musical titles.
- BOGEY becomes bogeyman.
- PAR belongs with terms meaning average or typical.
When a tempting group leaves no clean way to place the remaining words, it is worth testing whether one or more entries have a stronger alternate meaning. Here, the golf connection is the main obstacle to the intended solution.
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“Mean” and “norm” are intentionally broad
MEAN and NORM can each point toward an average or something typical, while PAR and STANDARD reinforce the same idea from slightly different directions. The group depends on accepting related meanings rather than expecting four interchangeable mathematical terms.
The Broadway group is title-based
BIRDIE, DOLLY, KATE, and YANKEES look unrelated when read as ordinary words. They become a group only when you supply the surrounding title: Bye Bye Birdie, Hello, Dolly!, Kiss Me, Kate, and Damn Yankees. The fact that the titles sound like spoken phrases is an important part of the category.
How to approach a difficult Connections board
- List obvious associations, but do not lock them in immediately. Golf is a useful observation here, but EAGLE, BIRDIE, BOGEY, and PAR should remain a hypothesis until the rest of the board supports it.
- Look for grammatical transformations. The purple group becomes visible when BOGEY, CRAFTS, GENTLE, and SPOKES are followed by the same word.
- Test proper nouns and titles. A word such as DOLLY or KATE may not belong with common nouns at all. Try recalling names, songs, films, books, or theatrical titles.
- Separate exact meanings from loose associations. MEAN, NORM, PAR, and STANDARD all point toward average or typicality more convincingly than the golf group works as an official category.
- Use the remaining words to verify the group. A correct category should leave a coherent set of four, not merely four words that can be connected in isolation.
How Connections works
The game presents 16 words and asks you to divide them into four groups of four. Each group has a shared connection, and the categories are usually displayed by difficulty color: yellow, green, blue, and purple. You can make up to four mistakes; after that, the game reveals the solution state. Because each word may support multiple associations, the challenge is not just spotting a connection but identifying the intended one.
Want more NYT-style puzzles?
If you prefer solving away from a screen, Puzzle Mania! is a physical NYT puzzle book from The New York Times Games and Joel Fagliano. The publisher describes it as including Wordle, Connections, Spelling Bee, the Mini Crossword, and other puzzles. It is a collection of NYT-style games—not a claim that it contains this specific March 30, 2025 Connections board—so check the current retailer or publisher listing for the edition and availability.
Date and puzzle-number note
This article covers Connections #658 from March 30, 2025. Search results may also surface a March 30, 2026 puzzle, but that is game #1023, not #658. Some guides for the 2025 puzzle appeared on March 29 because they were published before or around the puzzle’s release window.
Best Value
- Find hundreds of words in an easy to read format - Some words you'll spot easily, but you'll have to search hard for others.
- A wide range of puzzle topics, including movies, actors, sports, cars, and more!
- Variations on the standard word search puzzles are included for extra challenge.
- Answer key in the back of the book.
- Spiral bound, 192 pages.
Answer key and explanations were cross-checked against contemporaneous puzzle guides. The official NYT puzzle page was not directly accessible during the research pass, so this article does not claim to quote it or report a personal solve.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the answers to Connections #658?
The four groups are AVERAGE (MEAN, NORM, PAR, STANDARD); PICTURED ON THE U.S. GREAT SEAL (ARROWS, EAGLE, OLIVE BRANCH, SHIELD); PROPER NOUNS IN BROADWAY MUSICAL TITLES THAT ARE SPOKEN PHRASES (BIRDIE, DOLLY, KATE, YANKEES); and ___ MAN (BOGEY, CRAFTS, GENTLE, SPOKES).
What date was Connections #658?
The puzzle is Connections #658 from Sunday, March 30, 2025. A March 30, 2026 puzzle also appears in search results, but that is #1023.
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EAGLE, BIRDIE, BOGEY, and PAR are all golf terms, but golf is not an official category in this puzzle. The four words are split among the Great Seal, Broadway titles, ___ MAN, and AVERAGE groups.
The Bottom Line
Final groups: MEAN, NORM, PAR, STANDARD = AVERAGE; ARROWS, EAGLE, OLIVE BRANCH, SHIELD = PICTURED ON THE U.S. GREAT SEAL; BIRDIE, DOLLY, KATE, YANKEES = PROPER NOUNS IN BROADWAY MUSICAL TITLES THAT ARE SPOKEN PHRASES; and BOGEY, CRAFTS, GENTLE, SPOKES = ___ MAN.
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