Looking for answers to today's Connections? The Connections Companion has a difficulty rating of 3.3 out of 5.

We update our Connections hints and tips daily. And if the hints aren't enough, you can see all four answers along with the category title and related words. In addition, for those of you reading this in another time zone, I have included a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #503.

There are spoilers for connection 504. 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:

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.

There is a bigger clue. To solve today's puzzle, do a quick mood check, take measurements, and don't sweat the small stuff.

Now, what's the answer to today's game #504 Connection?

Drum roll please.

For today's puzzle, we started with the easy ones first, solving Cute, Fresh, Smart, and Wise.

Next, I solved the purple category at the other end of the difficulty spectrum. Something stuck out to me about the plural form of Rascals. What else could it be but “Little Rascals”? With that in mind, Prince, Mermaid, Tramp, and other “little” characters popped up.

Then came Air, Feeling, Mood, and Quality, followed by words for green.

This resulted in today's memorization of the blue category, which I managed to locate before it became obvious by digging deep into what I had learned in high school science class.

Are you reading this late in the day? According to Connections Companion, the difficulty level was 2.3 out of 5.

Yesterday's started in the blue category because I had imagined a baby in a rocker, swing, and cradle. The hammock didn't fit for a baby, but nothing else did.

A reset put the chain and chat next to each other, and I found a message thread and conversation.

I noted cans, rollers, and spools, but was looking for a paint or sewing connection. It took a second for the silo to click on the tube-shaped item.

That left faze, rattle, ruffle, and throw, “fluster”. I don't know why I didn't see the yellow category, but that's what happened.