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Need a nudge for the Friday, December 6, 2024 NYT Connections puzzle? Puzzle #544 has four themes: confusing someone, bad luck, familiar Toy Story characters, and slang endings. The clues below offer a spoiler-light path; the complete groups are clearly marked farther down.
Hints for Connections #544
Connections asks you to sort 16 words into four groups of four. These category clues move from broad to more specific without revealing the words in each group.
- First group: Think of verbs that mean to confuse or bewilder someone.
- Second group: These words can refer to a source of bad luck or misfortune.
- Third group: Look for familiar characters from a popular animated-film series.
- Fourth group: Each word can be an ending used in modern slang.
Answers for December 6, 2024 — spoilers
Stop here if you want to solve the puzzle using only the hints above. The full answer key for puzzle #544 follows.
| Category | Words |
|---|---|
| Baffle | PERPLEX, PUZZLE, STUMP, VEX |
| Curse | HEX, JINX, POX, SPELL |
| Toy Story characters, familiarly | BUZZ, HAMM, REX, SLINKY |
| Colloquial suffixes | CORE, GATE, MANIA, PILLED |
How the groupings work
Baffle
PERPLEX, PUZZLE, STUMP, and VEX can all mean to confuse or leave someone uncertain.
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Curse
HEX, JINX, POX, and SPELL are associated with a curse or a source of misfortune.
Toy Story characters
BUZZ, HAMM, REX, and SLINKY are familiar forms of names belonging to characters in the Toy Story films.
Colloquial suffixes
CORE, GATE, MANIA, and PILLED appear as endings in colloquial terms. Recognizing the suffix pattern is the key to separating these from words that might fit other categories at first glance.
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