Connections is a popular daily word puzzle that tests players’ ability to notice patterns in a table of terms.

Every day Newsweek provides readers with the best hints and tips to solve Connections, one of the most popular games published by The New York Times.

Connections was released in 2023 and quickly became a huge hit, thanks to its challenging but fun premise.

How to Play Connections

The categories vary in difficulty from yellow to green to blue to purple, with yellow considered the easiest category and purple the trickiest.

For example, a recent game linked the words “Braid,” “Bun,” “Pony” and “Twist” under “Ways to wear your hair up” in the blue category.

Once you have selected four words, you click the “submit” button. If your choices match a category, they will appear in the category color and disappear from the grid. If they are incorrect, however, they will remain gray and stay on the board.

If you are stuck, try selecting the “shuffle” button to move the words to a different place on the grid.

Players have up to four chances to guess incorrectly before the game ends. There’s no time constraint, so no need to rush things.

“My top advice is to hold off on guessing as long as you can,” Wyna Liu, the game’s editor at The New York Times, previously told Newsweek.

‘Connections’ #590 Clues for Tuesday, January 21

Newsweek is here with some hints to help you identify Tuesday’s Connections categories:

Yellow: Words used to denigrate another person.

Green: Tiny things that bear a resemblance to other things.

Blue: Ways to get rid of fluffy, white winter matter that falls from the sky.

Purple: Medical professionals that may appear in film or on other products.

‘Connections’ #590 Answers for Tuesday, January 21

Yellow Category: PUTDOWN

Yellow Words: Barb, Crack, Dig, Slight

Green Category: SMALL LIKENESS

Green Words: Doll, Figure, Miniature, Model

Blue Category: USED TO CLEAR SNOW

Blue Words: Plow, Salt, Sand, Shovel

Purple Category: DOCTORS IN POPULAR CULTURE

Purple Words: Who, Pepper, No, Octopus

Did you guess the answers correctly? If so, congratulations. If not, there will be another opportunity to play the game tomorrow.

Connections is released at midnight in your local time zone and Newsweek will be back tomorrow with another round of hints and tips.

In the meantime, you could try your hand at Wordle—another popular game from The New York Times for which Newsweek also provides daily hints.