Looking for the answer to today's Connections puzzle, the difficulty level for puzzle #553 on December 15 is considerably more difficult than yesterday's puzzle.

In this article, updated daily, you will find hints and clues for Connections. And if the hints are not enough, see the four answers below, along with category names and related words.

In addition, for those of you reading this in another time zone, I have included a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #552.

There are spoilers for connection #553. Only those who want to know the answer to today's connection 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.

Today's connecting words are: Thumb, Key, Leaf, Style, Mace, mar, Flail, Flip, Spear, Clove, Tank, Pepper, Riffle, Flounder, Nutmeg, Flop.

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

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

There is an even bigger clue. If you get distracted by the scent clues and lose track of what is missing, you will end up striking out. See the index of pop icons.

Now, what is the answer to the connection in today's game #553?

Drum roll please.

The first word I saw in today's puzzle was the most violent: mace, flail, spear. Mace, flail, and spear. But when I couldn't find the fourth word to complete the arsenal, I suspected I had caught a red light. And I was right! Once I saw nutmeg, cloves, and pepper, it occurred to me that connection crew meant spice mace, not the kind of mace that you pound.

Riffle was next on my list of standouts (I initially mistook it for rifle), and it was easy to pick out Flip, Leaf, and Thumb, since I had only heard it used to mean “to find a book. [Then Flail, Flop, and Flounder.

As a result, today's memorized purple was Key, Mar, Spear, and Style.

Are you reading this late in the day? According to Connections Companion, the difficulty level was 3 out of 5.

I was looking at the grid and found Sole, Sol, and Solo and found that they did not connect to each other. To me, at first I thought the three words were something to do with fish, currency, and a song I had seen divas sing.

So the fish were soon knocked out in fluke, mullasoi, sole, and tan. Currencies soon followed: pound (UK), real (Brazil), sol (Peru), and yuan (China).

After finding the other two, I had an idea what purple was in Solo and Diva. However, as I looked up the last eight words, the grid had dropped to read Going, Once, Twice, and Sold. I wasn't really convinced that the auction words were actually groups, but I gave it a lighthearted try.

To my surprise, the green category was filled.

That left Butter (cup), Diva (cup), Solo (cup), and World (cup).