Today’s Connections Hints & Answers For April 21, 2025 (Puzzle #680)

Information and organization dominate the themes for today’s Connections puzzle, but some chaos lightly sprinkled into word pairings will throw off even the most seasoned veterans. Although I could recognize some clear patterns in today’s puzzle, some concepts are trying to trick you as you play. Taking the advice of a few hints may make the difference between success and one too many mistakes.

The words in today’s puzzle are fairly easy to understand, with one clear exception. This is intentional, as you are meant to understand various phrases by the first meaning that comes into your head, possibly tricking you into not using alternate definitions that the puzzle is looking for. Similar to Wordle puzzle solutions, you only have four chances to make a mistake before losing in Connections today.

Today’s Connections Category Hints

April 21 #680

I was able to solve today’s puzzle by separating certain words from their specific definitions, not just the first meaning that came to me. If there were a theme for today, it would be order and chaos, as many words are used to describe organized systems or shapes. On the other hand, one category shakes things up by throwing in words that seemingly don’t make sense together until you recognize the right context.

If you are finding yourself struggling with today’s puzzle, look at these helpful hints to give you some clues:

• One category is about things related to the elements that make up food.
• One category is about things related to how you would describe some surprising news.
• One category is about things related to parts of a digital page you use to organize information.
• One category is about things that all have the same twisting shape.

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The Letter Boxed game for the New York Times mobile app asks you to connect letters to form words while using various strategies to win quickly.

If you want to go all out with some of your clue-searching, you should look at the category names to get some extra help. There are also spoilers for each category if you find yourself needing to solve a single category to finish up.

	INFO ON A NUTRITION LABEL
	METAPHOR FOR SOMETHING UNEXPECTED
	THINGS YOU CAN INSERT INTO A SPREADSHEET
	HELICAL THINGS

Today’s Connections Answers

April 21 #680

Yellow Answers: Revealed & Explained

This part of the puzzle was tricky for me, as I initially thought PROTEIN and FAT were related to the word CELL to describe what was within the microscopic building blocks of our bodies. However, I realized that IRON and SODIUM are both chemical compounds you would commonly find in food. This made me look back at FAT and PROTEIN and recognize that the same fact held true for those terms, leading me to the solution.

Green Answers: Revealed & Explained

Recently, I had a family member drop some news that I could only describe as a BOMBSHELL. With that swirling in my head as of late, I picked up on this category’s gimmick with CURVEBALL, which could hardly be used to describe a certain type of baseball pitch. When thinking about this puzzle, the words TWIST and WRENCH fit the most due to how disruptive they are, adding to the themes of today’s puzzle.

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The New York Times Vertex game asks you to form a picture by connecting dots, but you have to understand the image to solve this puzzle quickly.

Blue Answers: Revealed & Explained

Originally, I believed CELL was the anchor to many words outside of this category, such as DNA and PROTEIN. However, as I continued to play this puzzle instead of working, I looked up to adjust a COLUMN and ROW of a spreadsheet I had opened at the time. Recognizing that elements of a SHEET that help keep it organized are its CELL, ROW, and COLUMN parts, I quickly discovered the solution to this puzzle segment.

Purple Answers: Revealed & Explained

The final part of today’s puzzle was a bit confusing for me, as I did not know what FUSILLI was at first. After a bit of light searching, I discovered that FUSILLI was a type of pasta shaped in a CORKSCREW pattern when served. This helped me realize which terms this category was looking for, allowing me to add DNA for its helix shape and SPRING for how its coiled look made it fit this part of the puzzle perfectly.

Other Games Like Connections

If you are looking for another puzzle to play, check out one of the ones in the box below.

Connections

Systems

Released

June 12, 2023

ESRB

e

Developer(s)

The New York Times Company

Publisher(s)

The New York Times Company