Looking for today's Connections answer for puzzle #221 from January 18, which is getting more difficult as the week goes on. The Connections companion rated this puzzle 3.5 out of 5 for difficulty.

We update our Connections hints and tips daily. And if the hints aren't enough, see the four answers below, along with the category title and related words. In addition, for those of you reading this in a different time zone, I have included a reflection on yesterday's puzzle 220.

There are spoilers for Connection #221. Please only read this if you want to know the answer to today's Connections.

While today's Wordle answer guide recommends the best wordle starting words as a strategy, the answer to Connections depends on identifying the categories that are connected from the 16 words. The difficulty of each category is represented by a color, with yellow being the easiest grouping and purple the most difficult. Hints are helpful as the answer is displayed after four wrong guesses.

If you need a hint to solve the groupings, here are each theme in order of difficulty:

These hints should at least help you find the answer to today's connection. If not, please continue reading for larger hints. Also, if you just want the answer, scroll down further.

Now, here's a bigger tip: Today's grid may spur you to consider your favorite streaming service. But break the connection between those ideas and instead pave the way by considering how we communicated before digital domination began.

So what is the answer to the connection in today's game #221?

Drum roll please.

In today's game, bright colors jumped out at me almost immediately. There was no theme, and it seemed a little too simple. Sure enough, my answer was shaken off, but I had the consolation that there was one more to go.

Yellow must be the last piece of this brilliant jigsaw puzzle. I was fortunate enough to watch the 2014 World Cup, and the rhythm and beat of the bustling Rio streets remained with me a decade later, and I soon discovered the pattern. That yellow is, of course, canary yellow, which, along with blue, green, and white, forms Brazil's famous flag. Blue category complete.

Paramount, Peacock, and Prime were all jostling for a fourth term that would surely complete the category of popular streaming services. But with neither Apple, Disney, nor Netflix in sight, I was forced to reassess my objectives.

Remembering that peacock also means "to show off," and with the great Brazilian soccer team still in the back of my mind, I added grandstand, posture, and strut, and rather fortunately without losing my life, completed the yellow category I completed it.

With Paramount and Prime still available, I went from the tech-obsessed millennial brain to the pre-digital brain of Baby Boomer X and came up with a definition before these words became synonymous with on-demand TV. It was arguably the best tactic that led to the two aforementioned words joining Main and Supreme to complete the green category: foremost.

With Chain, Cover, Love, and Scarlet remaining, it is safe to say that we enjoyed a red-letter day as we considered the theme and hit submit.

Read this late in the day. According to Connections Companion, the difficulty level was 3.0 out of 5.

Today's grid evoked the spirit of my high school math teacher. Mean, median, mode, and range values popped up like old classmates at a reunion, waving their hands full of numbers. Eureka. The yellow category of dataset data had already been established.

In this numerical nostalgia, I found Rather. When I thought of Rather, I thought of Dan Rather, former national evening news anchor. I know (Howard) Stern, (Larry) King, and (Ira) Glass were also presenters. But alas, I only had three names correct, and the tiles just shook. So who was the fourth? Gross, of course, Terry Gross. Joined by the other four, the quartet of radio broadcasting legends was complete. I turned the dial to the correct frequency and the purple category was complete.

With the signal clear, my gaze turned to the elements of the grid. Elements, Bases, Solutions, Bonds ...... not the material of the spies, but the building blocks of matter themselves. The green categories coalesced into a perfectly balanced equation.

Finally, my focus was narrowed to intensifiers - Awful, Pretty, Rather, Real - increasing the number of adjectives to eleven, and filling in the blue categories with a thick brush of emphasis. [The symphony of set and spectrum, elements and eloquence, was completed with the precision of a perfectly calibrated pipette.

In Connections, reasoning and general knowledge are more important, and you never know which word (or words) does not belong in your guessed grouping. If one of the wrong words is included, the game will tell you so.

To win a connection, you should look carefully at all 16 words before making your first guess. Are there words that have more than one meaning than they are pronounced? Are there words that have more than one meaning? Are there any words that are part of a larger phrase?

Often, the first answer that jumps out at you may be intentionally misleading you. Therefore, identifying possible five-word categories is a good strategy to start with. Bookmark it and come back to it after you have solved one or two other categories, and it should help you figure out which of the five words belong in another category.

Most connection categories are not as obvious as they might seem. Editors typically use phrases, puns, and other tricky topics that require thought. If you get stuck on a category, cycle through each word in the grid and brainstorm possible categories to which the word might apply.

Connections is a category matching game and was released in beta on June 12, 2023. It was then officially added to the NYT Games app (iOS and Android) on August 28, 2023. The app allows users to play the daily New York Times crossword and the ultra-popular Wordle game. However, playing the crossword requires a paid subscription, while Wordle and Connections are free.

In Connections, you are presented with 16 words and must group them into four four-word categories. Often there are words or seemingly five-word categories that are intended to mislead you. Your goal is to group the words appropriately without going beyond four guesses; if you cannot solve the puzzle within four attempts, you have failed and the answer will be revealed.

NYT Connection Puzzles are available daily. Games are updated at midnight local time on your device.

Connections can be played on the New York Times Game App available for iOS/iPadOS and Android. If you are using a computer or device browser, you can access NYT Connections online here.