NYT Connections hints and answers for Monday, May 18 (game #1072)

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing ‘today’s game’ while others are playing ‘yesterday’s’. If you’re looking for Sunday’s puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Sunday, May 17 (game #1071).

Good morning! Let’s play Connections, the NYT’s clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints.

NYT Connections today (game #1072) – hint #1 – group hints

What are some clues for today’s NYT Connections groups?

YELLOW: Soundalikes
GREEN: Break apart
BLUE: Baseball stars
PURPLE: Edible mix

Need more clues?

We’re firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today’s NYT Connections puzzles…

NYT Connections today (game #1072) – the answers

NYT Connections answers for game 1072 on a purple background — (Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today’s Connections, game #1072, are…

YELLOW: HOMOPHONES PAIR, PARE, PEAR, PÈRE
GREEN: RUPTURE BLOW, CRACK, POP, SPLIT
BLUE: MLB PLAYER PADRE, RED, ROYAL, TWIN
PURPLE: FRUIT ANAGRAMS CHEAP, EARP, LUMP, WIKI

My rating: Hard
My score: Perfect

PEAR, PARE, PÉRE, and PAIR immediately felt like a trap, especially as PARE and SPLIT are similar words. I was not 100% sure, though, so I decided to leave all four alone.

Spotting that EARP was an anagram of PEAR I set out to see what other FRUIT ANAGRAMS I could spot and was rewarded with a purple first.

After this triumph, I decided to go for it and risk pairing all those pairs. Not a trick after all. Oh what games Connections plays with us.

NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.

On the plus side, you don’t technically need to solve the final one, as you’ll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What’s more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.

It’s a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.