Looking for a clue to today's Connections answer for puzzle #568 from December 30, which is harder than yesterday's puzzle. The Connections Companion rated this puzzle a 3 out of 5 for difficulty.

We update our Connections clues and hints daily. And if the hints aren't enough, see the four answers below, along with the category name and related words.

In addition, for those of you reading this in another time zone, I have included a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #567.

There are spoilers for connection 568. Only those who want to know the answer to today's connection should read on.

Alternatively, see our NYT Connections How to Play Guide for tips on how to solve the puzzle without our help.

While today's wordle solution guide recommends the best wordle starting words as a strategy, the Connections solution depends on identifying the categories that are connected from the 16 words. The difficulty of each category is represented by a color, with yellow being the easiest grouping and purple the most difficult. Hints are helpful as the answer is displayed after four wrong guesses.

Today's connecting words are: Pink, Pony, Club, Airplane, Grinder, Water, Ante, Hero, Wrap, Settle, Jeopardy, Beans, Yahoo, Melt, Cough.

If you need a hint to help you solve the groupings, here are each theme in order of difficulty:

If you read these hints, you should at least be able to find the answer to today's connection. If not, please continue reading for larger hints. Also, if you only want to know the answer, scroll down further.

Here's a bigger hint: Have a sandwich and a cup of coffee before you excitedly pay for it.

Now, what's the answer to today's game #568, Connections?

Drum roll, please.

I was hungry when I started today's puzzle, so I quickly clocked Hero, Melt, Wrap and Sandwich, first with the grinder and put. Strike one. replaced the wrap with a club. 25]

Finally, I looked around some more and connected to coffee with beans, filter, grinder and water. Then went back for sandwiches.

Then I looked at the ante and the saylette and thought poker. I thought of ponies and was stuck for a minute before I realized what the cough was.

The last one left was the one with the “! in the name: Airplane, Jeopardy, P!nk, and Yahoo. Actually, I had the right idea for all four, but I hadn't associated them with punctuation.

Are you reading this late in the day? According to Connections Companion, the difficulty level was 2 out of 5.

I'm feeling nice and relaxed today.

As soon as we started, I saw maroon and ruby, so I looked for other shades of Crayola. Brick and cherry colors followed soon after.

Strand and wisp seemed similar to me, which led me to locks, and then to the head and hair idea. I thought about fur for a bit, too, because I didn't see the head right away.

Appointments were concerned with date, place, and time. The time period rounded it out. [beach (beech), fir (fir), pear (pear), u (yew).

Enjoy the last Saturday in 2024.