Looking for clues for today's Connections answers? The Connections answers on May 19 for puzzle #708 are much easier than yesterday's puzzle, with the Connections Companion rating this puzzle's difficulty at 3 out of 5.
Every day, we update this article with Connections hints and tips to help you find all 4 of today's answers so you can keep your Connections streak going. And if the clues aren't enough, you'll find all four answers below, with the category titles and the correlating words.
Plus, we're including a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #707, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.
Spoilers lie ahead for Connections #708. Only read on if you want to know today's Connections answers.
Alternatively, visit our how to play NYT Connections guide for tips on how to solve the puzzle without our help.
Today's Connections answer — hints to help you solve it
Unlike our guide to today's Wordle answer, where we recommend the best Wordle start words as your strategy, solving Connections relies on identifying connecting categories among 16 words. Each category's difficulty level is represented by a color; yellow is the easiest grouping, and purple is the most challenging. Once you've made 4 mistakes in your guesses, the answers will be revealed, so hints can be helpful.
Today's Connections words are: Melon, Ball, Chance, Bawl, Soul, Blubber, Function, Fluke, Utility, Tow, Avenue, Benefit, Flipper, Railroad, Gala, Heal
If you need hints to solve the groupings, then here are the themes of each, based on the order of difficulty:
- 🟨 Yellow: Fundraising event
- 🟩 Green: Spaces on a Monopoly board
- 🟦 Blue: Features of a toothed whale
- 🟪 Purple: Homophones of parts of the foot
These hints should get you at least some of the way towards finding today's Connections answers. If not, then you can read on for bigger clues; or, if you just want to know the answer, then scroll down further.
Here's a larger hint: Brush up on your anatomy, both human and otherwise, before breaking out the board games.
Today's Connections answers
So, what are today's Connections answers for game #708?
Drumroll, please...
- 🟨 Fundraising event: Ball, Benefit, Function, Gala
- 🟩 Spaces on a monopoly board: Avenue, Chance, Railroad, Utility
- 🟦 Features of a toothed whale: Blubber, Flipper, Fluke, Melon
- 🟪 Homophones of parts of the foot: Bawl, Heal, Soul, Tow
I kicked things off by solving the yellow category with Ball, Benefit, Function, and Gala, and it's always a double-edged sword to start with the easiest category. That means things can only get tougher from here. Mostly I just saw Melon and Ball next to each other and knew they must have nothing to do with the kitchen utensil.
I tried to link Bawl and Blubber together, but no dice. That left me side-eyeing Bawl, trying to figure out what else it could mean. Once I stared at it long enough next to Heal, it struck me that they're both homophones of body parts near each other, and I rounded out the rest of the purple category with Soul and Tow.
Next came the much easier green category with Avenue, Chance, Railroad, and Utility. I completely forgot Chance spaces were a thing, so it took me a second.
That left the blue category as today's rote fill with Blubber, Flipper, Fluke, and Melon. I learned that last one is the name for the forehead bump Belugas have. The more you know!
Yesterday's Connections answers
- 🟨 Tasks for a student: Assignment, Drill, Exercise, Lesson
- 🟩 Encouraging responses in a guessing game: Almost, Close, Not Quite, Warm
- 🟦 Up for anything: Easy, Flexible, Game, Open
- 🟪 "E" things: Commerce, mail, scooter, signature
Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Connections answers for game #707, which had a difficulty rating of 2.3out of 5, according to the Connections Companion.
The multi-word clues usually draw my eye first, so when I saw Not Quite, I figured I'd start looking for other "nearly there" words. That led me to Almost, Close, and, after some creative spitballing while glancing over the other clues, I finally noticed Warm could fit into that category as well.
There seemed to be a lot of words related to gym class or sports, but not quite enough to fit four together. That got me thinking about school, though, and from there it was easy enough to spot Assignment, Drill, Exercise, and Lesson for the yellow category.
I figured any gym kind of connection was out, so that had me taking a second look at Flexible and Game to figure out what else they could mean. Once I noticed Open and Easy, I knew they had to be related.
That left Area, Athletic, Excellent, and One as today's rote fill for the purple category.
