The New York Times Connections puzzle for Tuesday, May 20, 2025, was No. 709. Below are the clues first, followed by the complete groups and explanations. Because this puzzle is from a past date, the answers are presented retrospectively rather than as today’s live puzzle.
Spoiler warning: The complete answers for the Tuesday, May 20, 2025, NYT Connections puzzle appear below the hints.
The requested puzzle was Connections No. 709. Its 16 words were:
LEDGER, LOG, RECORD, REGISTER, BALE, HORSE, PITCHFORK, TROUGH, BROWN, DREW, HARDY, HOLMES, CANOPY, DAY, MURPHY, WATER
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Hints for Connections No. 709
Connections groups are ordered from generally easiest to hardest: yellow, green, blue, then purple. If you wanted to preserve the challenge, these clues provided a spoiler-light route through the puzzle.
Yellow hint
Think of a book or maintained record used to keep track of accounts, transactions, events, or other information.
Green hint
Picture ordinary objects and animals associated with a farm or barn.
Blue hint
These are names associated with fictional mystery detectives from children’s or young-reader literature.
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Purple hint
Put each word before “bed” to make a familiar compound word or phrase.
Answers for the May 20, 2025, Connections puzzle
Yellow: ACCOUNT BOOK
LEDGER, LOG, RECORD, REGISTER
Each word can describe a written or maintained account of transactions, events, or information. Ledger is the most direct account-book reference, while log, record, and register can all describe organized entries kept over time.
Rank #3
Green: SEEN IN A BARN
BALE, HORSE, PITCHFORK, TROUGH
A bale of hay, a horse, a pitchfork, and a trough are all plausible sights in or around a barn. This was the most concrete group in the puzzle and a useful starting point for solving it.
Blue: DETECTIVES OF KID-LIT
BROWN, DREW, HARDY, HOLMES
These words point to Encyclopedia Brown, Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, and Sherlock Holmes as encountered in children’s and young-reader mystery fiction.
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The group was deliberately less straightforward than the barn category. Brown, Drew, Hardy, and Holmes can all look like ordinary surnames or broader entertainment references. The intended connection was not simply “famous detectives,” but detectives associated with kid-lit and youth editions.
Purple: WORDS BEFORE “BED”
CANOPY, DAY, MURPHY, WATER
Each word forms a familiar expression when placed before bed:
- canopy bed
- daybed
- Murphy bed
- waterbed
This was the word-combination category and likely the most deceptive group. Day, Murphy, and water make the pattern easier to confirm once you test them against “bed”; canopy completes the set.
How to solve this puzzle efficiently
- Start with the farm words. BALE, HORSE, PITCHFORK, and TROUGH form a concrete group with few competing interpretations.
- Separate the record words. LEDGER, LOG, RECORD, and REGISTER all relate to accounts or maintained entries.
- Read the remaining names as character clues. BROWN, DREW, HARDY, and HOLMES are easier to group when you think of children’s mystery series and youth literature rather than only general detective fiction.
- Test short word combinations for the last four. CANOPY, DAY, MURPHY, and WATER all go before “bed.”
As with every Connections board, some words can appear to fit more than one idea. That is intentional: the game asks you to find the one intended partition of all 16 words into four groups of four. A possible association is not enough unless it leaves a clean, defensible group and four words for each remaining category.
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If you enjoy the format beyond the daily digital game, the official Connections puzzle book is a related print collection curated by editor Wyna Liu. The publisher describes it as a dedicated book-form collection with exclusive puzzles and a lay-flat format. It is a collection for continuing to solve offline, not a claim that it contains the May 20, 2025, daily puzzle.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was the Connections answer for May 20, 2025?
The May 20, 2025, NYT Connections puzzle was No. 709. The answers were ACCOUNT BOOK, SEEN IN A BARN, DETECTIVES OF KID-LIT, and WORDS BEFORE “BED.”
What were the purple words in Connections No. 709?
The four words were CANOPY, DAY, MURPHY, and WATER: canopy bed, daybed, Murphy bed, and waterbed.
Why were BROWN, DREW, HARDY, and HOLMES grouped together?
The blue group was BROWN, DREW, HARDY, and HOLMES, referring to Encyclopedia Brown, Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, and Sherlock Holmes in children’s or young-reader mystery fiction.
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The May 20, 2025, NYT Connections puzzle was No. 709. Its groups were ACCOUNT BOOK (LEDGER, LOG, RECORD, REGISTER), SEEN IN A BARN (BALE, HORSE, PITCHFORK, TROUGH), DETECTIVES OF KID-LIT (BROWN, DREW, HARDY, HOLMES), and WORDS BEFORE “BED” (CANOPY, DAY, MURPHY, WATER).
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