Looking for an answer to today's Connections? The Connections Companion has a difficulty rating of 3 out of 5

We update our Connections hints and tips daily And if the hints aren't enough for you, here are 4 more answers, along with category titles 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, #489

There are spoilers for Connection 490 Only those who want to know the answer to today's Connections should read on

Or see our NYT Connections How to Play Guide for tips on how to solve the puzzle without our help

While today's wordle solution guide recommends the best wordle starting words as a strategy, the Connections solution 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:

If you read these hints, you should at least find the answer to today's connection If not, please continue reading for larger hints Also, if you only want the answer, scroll down further

There is a bigger clue Think back to your childhood science classes and the shows you watched back then Remember the fashion trends of the past few decades and you'll get a kick out of it

Now, what's the answer to today's game #490 Connection?

Drum roll please

The difficulty of the puzzles has been sluggish over the past few days, but Sunday's difficulty has increased a bit I started with the easiest category, nails, hooves, horns, and claws, not realizing that they also have one thing in common: they are made of keratin

Next came the blue category, which puzzled me a bit, and after striking out twice, I realized that (MC) Hummer pants were the one pair I was missing, along with capris, cargo, and stirrups

After that was the green category Having recently watched a lot of cartoons on Disney Plus, it wasn't too difficult to learn that Anvil, Boulder, Coyote, and TNT were the stars of the old Road Runner Looney Tunes

That's why today's memorized fills are purple This was lucky because I had no idea what California, Drum, Egg, and Honor had in common This was lucky because I didn't know what California, Drum, Egg, and Honor had in common

Are you reading this late in the day? According to Connections Companion, the difficulty level was 24 out of 5

This warm Saturday got off to an Audubon start with gobbling and chirping The onomatopoeia of birdsong soon saw cooing and hooting

Scarves, shawls, and wraps made it a little more wintery It took me a while to remember that the shawl was essentially a poncho without a hood

He was quick to grab the bear and stand up for forgiveness

I don't think I've ever reacted aloud to a purple category as I did today, looking at the letters App(le), Goo(gle), Motor(ora), and Sam(sung), and as soon as the category title appeared, I said “gross”

Needless to say, I hated the grouping and the title Deleting half of the letters, words and phrases for the purple grouping is still the worst type of category