Looking for an answer to today's Connections? The Connections Companion has a difficulty rating of 2 out of 5.

We update our Connections clues and hints daily. If the hints are not enough for you, we also provide the answers to all four questions, the category names, and the related words. In addition, for those of you reading this in a different time zone, I have included a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #496.

There are spoilers for connection 497. Only those who want to know the answer to today's connection should read on.

Or see our guide on how to play NYT Connections.

While today's Wordle answer guide recommends the best wordle starting words as a strategy, the Connections answer 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 back to your elementary school writing class, gym class, and the noisy days of School House Rock, and try to solve today's puzzle.

Now, what is the answer to today's game #497 Connection?

Drumroll, please.

You may have a record for how quickly you solved a category today; after looking at Article and Column, Feature and Story jumped out at me.

I struck out once trying to connect all the sports-related words I saw before stumbling on Clatter and Ruckus; Row came to me after a while, but it took me a while to remember that Racket has multiple meanings.

Once the green was settled, blue was next, followed by ball, net, paddle, table, and all the essential tools for a game of ping pong.

Remaining is the purple category, but you may need a dictionary to parse this today. At the very least, it will remind you of Schoolhouse Rock (connection junction, what's its function~). Okay, fess up: which English major on the Connection Crew came up with this?

Are you reading this late in the day? According to the Connections Companion, the difficulty level was 2.5 out of 5.

The purple category is one of the easiest I've played Connections.

I saw Metroid first, but was quick to grab Halo, Civilization, and Madden. I've reviewed the current Madden 25 and am irresistibly excited about Civilization 7, which will be released next year. I'm curious about video games

Well, when I put down the controller and opened the first puzzle I saw candles and incense, I thought of the relaxing bath category. So it was a pleasant filling to add lotions and soaps to that list.

The last two were coin flips, but since inspire, prompt, and provoke overlapped, I grabbed generate and yellow was the fastest group.

That left the blue category with insult, jellyfish, nettle, and wasp, which are emotional and physical stings.