‘Connections’ February 17: All Hints and Answers for Game #617

In 2023, Connections was launched by The New York Times following the resounding success it achieved with Wordle, a word-based game which it purchased in January 2022 from Josh Wardle, a software developer based out of New York who created it during the coronavirus pandemic.

Following its release Connections quickly picked up a loyal following around the world, with some players taking to social media each day to share their scores and discuss tactics.

How to Play Connections

The Connections game gives players 16 new words each day, which they are tasked with dividing into four categories based on common characteristics.

These are color-coded to represent their difficulty, with yellow the easiest followed by green, blue and purple. In each turn, the player selects four words. If they are connected, constituting one of the four categories, these words light up and are removed from the board. Their color is also revealed at this point showing how tough the quiz setters thought that set of connections would be.

There is no time limit, but if the player guesses incorrect groups of words for times they lose the game.

At any point, the player can shuffle the board, resulting in the 16 words being randomly repositioned.

According to Connections editor Wyna Liu, if you have five cards that all seem to belong in the same category, your best move may well be to try to figure out a different category, then come back to the original one once some of the words are eliminated.

Liu said: “Doing so might take one of those extra cards out of contention, or at least remove a few cards from the board, making other categories easier to see.”

The answers for Monday’s Connections puzzle will be revealed at the end of this article, so please scroll down with caution if you want to work them out yourself.

Connections #617 Clues for Monday, February 17

Newsweek has some hints to help you figure out Monday’s Connections categories.

Yellow: Getting away from it all.

Green: Turning.

Blue: All linked to one sport.

Purple: Think water.

Connections #617 Answers for Monday, February 17

Yellow Category: TIME OFF

Yellow Words: BREAK, LEAVE, REST, VACATION

Green Category: FOLLOW A MEANDERING COURSE

Green Words: CURVE, SNAKE, WEAVE, WIND

Blue Category: BOWLING RESULTS

Blue Words: DOUBLE, SPARE, STRIKE, TURKEY

Purple Category: ____FISH

Purple Words: BLOW, CAT, GOLD, SWORD

Well that was a fun one! Did you work it out? Congratulations is so, but please don’t be put off if not. Practice makes perfect and one of the best things about Connections is seeing if you can improve your scores over time.

The next Connections puzzle will be published by The New York Times on Tuesday and Newsweek will of course be back to offer another round of hints and tips to help you figure out the answer.