Looking for an answer to today's Connections question? The Connections Companion has a difficulty rating of 2.8 out of 5.

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

In addition, for those of you reading this in a different time zone, I have included a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #564.

There are spoilers for Connection 565. Only those who want to know the answer to today's Connections should read on.

Or 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 connection words are: Taps, Unicorn, Iron, Bacon, Presses, Phoenix Car, Bugler, Bridges, Africa, Toast, Washington, Grits, Hits, Hash, Clicks Clicks

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

These hints should at least help you 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 clue. If you are hungry for an early morning meal, simply press a button to turn on the oven. Do not include horned animals in your meal, or you will not get the prize.

Now, what is the answer to today's game #565 Connection?

Drum roll please.

It was a complicated puzzle today, but I solved yellow and green almost instantly (yellow first. Maybe I just wanted breakfast).

After the first two puzzles, I wasted several guesses on the wrong course. I thought it was Washington, Phoenix, or some place in Africa, which was obviously where they wanted me to go.

Eventually, with one remaining guess, I connected Bugler, Africa, and Unicorn as musical places and things. It was impossible, but it was all I could find. I threw in a car completely off the top of my head and it worked. From there it was just a combination of the last four, because there were no other options.

I solved the puzzle today, but I didn't feel like I won because I didn't actually connect the horns, I just got lucky. I just got lucky!

Are you reading this late in the day? According to Connection Companion, the difficulty level was 32.5 out of 5.

I enjoyed yesterday's puzzle. Actually, I started with Blue, tying things up with Handsome, Healthy, Respect to the fact that things are big, and Tidy got a little lucky.

I got yellow second, but it was so straightforward that I felt like this could have been green. From there I went into the green section and soon realized that there were three different types of trees. I guessed the elder as the type of tree and was correct.

As for purple, I was correct because it was the last four; even I, an AP-trained writer, would not have been able to figure out the US state abbreviation no matter how much I thought about it, so I was glad the last four were still there.