Looking for an answer to today's Connections companion, the difficulty of puzzle #483 from October 6 took a nosedive compared to yesterday's puzzle The Connections companion gave this puzzle a difficulty rating of 23 out of 5

We update our Connections clues and hints 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, #482

There are spoilers for connection #483 Only those who want to know the answer to today's connection should read on

Alternatively, 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

Here's a bigger clue: Think of a popular animal on the Internet that can help you solve today's puzzle Just don't get too cheesy

Now for the answer to today's game #483 Connection

Drum roll please

I have a ridiculously fluffy orange cat named Cheeto that has hair all over the place (yes, the stereotype that orange cats share one brain cell is totally true) So my first thought was that Shed meant a physical structure, but once I saw Knead, Purr, and Scratch, it became instantly clear what the connection crew meant instead

Cheeto is also one of the most timid pets I have ever had, despite having lived the good old house cat life since birth So it was easy to summarize today's yellow category of “run away,” “leave,” “retreat,” and “withdraw,” which I have seen him do to anything from vacuum cleaners to straw wrappers that he doesn't like the look of, next

Even the most difficult category today, purple, concerns different kinds of cheese (cottage, cream, goat, string), and I was thinking of the little man

So today's blue was filled with “About,” “Contact,” “Home,” “Login,” and memorization, but I managed to guess the relevance before it became obvious, so I'll pat myself on the back for winning 4-4 today I'll pat myself on the back for winning four and losing four today

I'm reading this late in the day According to Connections Companion, the difficulty level was 32 out of 5

Since dinner tonight was on the grill, I was curious about the meat and easily got the yellow categories of filet, hanger, skirt, and T-bone steak cuts

I looked at the drills and x-rays, and soon came across a washbasin and toothbrush for the dentist

Even though I knew what the purple category was, I was stuck here because I had no idea how hipster related to any of the remaining seven words

Still, I chose a word that is a general term featuring chapstick (lip balm), jacuzzi (hot tub), q-tip (cotton swab), and xerox (copier)

As a result, the green category remained underwear types such as bikini, g-string, hipster, and thong I had never heard of underwear called hipster before Hipster underwear is worn on the hip area below the waist and tends to have less fabric than briefs

I also wanted to argue that g-strings and thongs are the same thing, but apparently g-strings are a type of thong and provide less coverage than thongs, which tend to have thicker bands at the waist I learned this fact from an underwear website called Boody

It's always nice to learn something new and stretch my curiosity muscles when I come across facts I didn't know