Skip to main content Tom's Guide Tom's Guide Search Tom's Guide View Profile Newsletters Best Picks Entertainment Switch 2 Pre-Orders iPhone 17 Air Best laptops Best Mattress Wordle Today Recommended reading NYT Connections today hints and answers — Thursday, May 15 (#704) NYT Connections today hints and answers — Wednesday, May 14 (#703) NYT Connections today hints and answers — Tuesday, May 13 (#702) NYT Connections today hints and answers — Friday, May 2 (#691) NYT Connections today hints and answers — Wednesday, May 7 (#696) NYT Connections today hints and answers — Wednesday, April 23 (#682) NYT Connections today hints and answers — Friday, March 21 (#649) NYT Connections today hints and answers — Saturday, May 17 (706) Scott Younker Contributions from Alyse Stanley 16 May 2025 Get clues and answers for today's NYT Connections to keep your streak When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: Future) Today's hint Today's answers Yesterday's answers Looking for clues for today's Connections answers? The Connections answers on May 17 for puzzle #706 are a tad easier than yesterday's puzzle, with the Connections Companion rating this puzzle's difficulty at 3.8 out of 5. Every day, we update this article with Connections hints and tips to help you find all 4 of today's answers so you can keep your Connections streak going. And if the clues aren't enough, you'll find all four answers below, with the category titles and the correlating words. Plus, we're including a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #705, in case you're reading this in a different time zone. You may like NYT Connections today hints and answers — Thursday, May 15 (#704) NYT Connections today hints and answers — Wednesday, May 14 (#703) NYT Connections today hints and answers — Tuesday, May 13 (#702) Spoilers lie ahead for Connections #706. Only read on if you want to know today's Connections answers. Alternatively, visit our how to play NYT Connections guide for tips on how to solve the puzzle without our help. Today's Connections answer — hints to help you solve it (Image credit: New York Times) Unlike our guide to today's Wordle answer, where we recommend the best Wordle start words as your strategy, solving Connections relies on identifying connecting categories among 16 words. Each category's difficulty level is represented by a color; yellow is the easiest grouping, and purple is the most challenging. Once you've made 4 mistakes in your guesses, the answers will be revealed, so hints can be helpful. Today's Connections words are: Macaroni, Animal, King, Mail, Ruler, Scooter, Plant, Emperor, Beaker, Bacteria, Commerce, Syringe, Fungus, Signature, Chinstrap, and Protractor. Sign up to get the BEST of Tom's Guide direct to your inbox. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. If you need hints to solve the groupings, then here are the themes of each, based on the order of difficulty: 🟨 Yellow: Member of a kingdom in taxonomy 🟩 Green: Graduated instruments 🟦 Blue: Kinds of penguins 🟪 Purple: "E" things These hints should get you at least some of the way towards finding today's Connections answers. If not, then you can read on for bigger clues; or, if you just want to know the answer, then scroll down further. Here's a larger hint: Get in the lab for some biology of electric penguins. Today's Connections answers So, what are today's Connections answers for game #706? Drumroll, please... 🟨 Member of a kingdom in taxonomy: Animal, bacteria, fungus, plant 🟩 Graduated instruments: Beaker, protractor, ruler, syringe 🟦 Kinds of penguins: Chinstrap, emperor, king, macaroni 🟪 "E" things: Commerce, mail, scooter, signature I started today's possible seeing beaker and syringe. My thought was that it was a laboratory group which is why I picked protractor and ruler, though graduated instruments works as well. Next I spotted taxonomies with animal, bacteria, fungus and plant but saved it. Instead, I remembered that chinstrap is a type of penguin. This got me to emperor, king and macaroni which was the blue group. Which left e-commerce, e-mail, e-scooter, and e-signature as the purple quartet. Finally, I put in the yellow set to finish today's puzzle. Yesterday's Connections answers 🟨 Kinds of plants: Herb, shrub, tree, vine 🟩 Discontinue: Dissolve, end, scrap, sunset 🟦 Associated with bulls: Michael Jordan, rodeo, taurus, wall street 🟪 Ending with building materials: Hollywood, hourglass, Kubrick, neuroplastic Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Connections answers for game #705, which had a difficulty rating of 4 out of 5, according to the Connections Companion. I believe you're supposed to get tripped up by Hollywood references in this puzzle, but I spent an inordinate amount of time being upset by neuroplastic and my strong belief that it isn't a word. I actually paused playing the game to research neuroplasticity (I did a moment to look for words missing their suffixes). I would say on the whole most places say neuroplasticity or neuroplasty in reference to the surgery. However, to eat my hat, I did find the term neuroplastic pain and some institutes like Johns Hopkins do have neuroplastic teams. I still believe most people would know neuroplasticity over this briefer term For fun neuroplasticity is the brain's ability to adapt or change throughout your life, in most cases its cited around brain injuries like strokes or head trauma. That's a long winded way of saying that at some point I asked myself why would they screw up this word, which is when I saw plastic. A glance around the board revealed Kubrick, Hollywood, and hourglass. Sometimes you get in your own way. Moving on, I did spot the Hollywood trap here and deduced that the other Los Angeles words would be in their own sets which left me looking for connections to Sunset, then Vine and finally Rodeo. Sunset to me meant shutting down which led to dissolve, end and scrap. Vine is a plant obviously, which got me to herb, shrub and tree. I wasn't making the Bulls connection as I was more focused on seeing the Hollywood separators but the final four were Jordan, taurus, rodeo and wall street. See more Gaming News Scott Younker Social Links Navigation West Coast Reporter Scott Younker is the West Coast Reporter at Tom’s Guide. He covers all the lastest tech news. He’s been involved in tech since 2011 at various outlets and is on an ongoing hunt to build the easiest to use home media system. When not writing about the latest devices, you are more than welcome to discuss board games or disc golf with him. With contributions from Alyse StanleyNews Editor You must confirm your public display name before commenting Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name. NYT Connections today hints and answers — Thursday, May 15 (#704) NYT Connections today hints and answers — Wednesday, May 14 (#703) NYT Connections today hints and answers — Tuesday, May 13 (#702) NYT Connections today hints and answers — Friday, May 2 (#691) NYT Connections today hints and answers — Wednesday, May 7 (#696) NYT Connections today hints and answers — Wednesday, April 23 (#682) Latest in Gaming Fortnite iOS return blocked — live updates on game being down worldwide I'm a PC gamer and I wish I knew about these 5 Steam apps to boost my gaming setup I test gaming devices for a living — here are 7 peripherals I recommend right now New PlayStation handheld console could launch with the PS6 - and Sony is reportedly working on it right now I just tested these audiophile gaming earbuds — and they almost give my SteelSeries buds a run for their money NYT Strands today — hints, spangram and answers for game #439 (Friday, May 16 2025) Latest in News Chrome for Android could be getting a major time-saving upgrade to make verification even easier The Oura ring just got a new rival with a titanium design and 24/7 biometric tracking — no subscription required Apple Pay was down — live updates on the outage Fortnite iOS return blocked — live updates on game being down worldwide How to watch 'Code of Silence' online – stream the Rose Ayling-Ellis drama from anywhere Prime Video top 10 movies — here’s the 3 worth watching right now LATEST ARTICLES Saatva's most affordable mattress drops to $949 in Memorial Day sale — how to get luxury for less Chrome for Android could be getting a major time-saving upgrade to make verification even easier The Oura ring just got a new rival with a titanium design and 24/7 biometric tracking — no subscription required Huge REI anniversary sale starts now — 13 can't miss deals I'd shop this weekend Skechers Memorial Day sale from $21 at Amazon — 9 deals I'd shop this weekend on sneakers and sandals Tom's Guide is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. 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