Today's Connections Hints & Answers For January 21, 2025 (Puzzle #590)

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If you are struggling to finish today’s puzzle, there could be a few different reasons for that. Sometimes, it’s just unlucky that you don’t recognize some of the words in the harder categories and sometimes there are a lot of tricks that the editors use to make sure you have a harder time. If today is one of those unfortunate days, we have all the information you need to be more careful about what words you are putting together so that you can achieve victory.

If you want to try out a different kind of puzzle, is a puzzle that incorporates a series of mini-puzzles that you have to solve in order to get to the final answer. They are called “rules” but they force you to solve them and ensure that your answer doesn’t contradict the other rules that they set for you. Sometimes this can feel frustrating, but usually, it can all be worked out and finished with a little bit of thinking. It is difficult, but it is also very satisfying to get to the end.

This puzzle can feel more difficult than it actually is, mainly due to one red herring and the sense that some of the words don’t belong together at all. However, if you find yourself struggling, there are ways to use what you do know to deduce what the answers are. To help you do so, I have a little more information that you will find helpful. This includes the following 4 clues:

Strands is one of New York Times' many puzzle games that consists of a unique 6x8 word search that requires players to use zig-zag solutions.

If that is not quite enough for you to finish it off, we still have all the tips you need to do so. The next big piece of information are thecategory names.

PUTDOWN

SMALL LIKENESS

USED TO CLEAR SNOW

DOCTORS IN POP CULTURE

PUTDOWN

BARB

CRACK

DIG

SLIGHT

This category felt fairly straightforward. BARB does have multiple meanings, but with the other words in this category, it wasn’t hard to get this one. DIG could also be a bit of a red herring, due to SHOVEL and SAND also being in the puzzle today.