Looking for a clue to today's Connections answer for puzzle 548 of December 10, Rating. It was not published in time for today's answer release.

We update our Connections hints and clues daily. And if the hints are not enough for you, see the four answers below, along with the category name 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 #547.

There are spoilers for Connections #548. Only read this if you want to know the answer to today's Connections.

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: Fish, Call, Wanda, Ran, Inland, Cruise, Fumble, Taxi, Touchdown, Dub, Olivia, Root, Name, Rummage, Takeoff, Label.

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

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

There are even bigger clues.

Now, scroll down to “Name It,” “Find the Answer,” and “Enjoy the Flight as You Visit Countries Around the World.”

Now, what is the answer to today's game #548 Connection?

Drum roll please.

I admit that I struggled today because I could see the beginning of the connection but realized that there was nothing there. For example, when I saw Cruise and Touchdown, I thought of Tom (Tom Cruise and “Touchdown” Tom Brady). I had a lot of small two-term groups. In football terms, I saw touchdowns, dabs, and fumbles as possible terms.

My day began in earnest with the yellow category. I first found the names and labels. The call went well, but it took me a while to click on the dub because I was thinking of dub as winning slang for “take the dub.”

Root and rummage stuck with me and I liked fish. I didn't like fumble because I thought it implied a more hapless appearance than the other three, but I guess that's the definition in my mind.

We eventually knocked out the green category with a cruise, takeoff, cab, and touchdown. Being stuck on football delayed my thinking here.

And purple, the purple grouping of words minus letters or groups of letters, is my least favorite style. There is (F)landland, (B)olivia, (I)ran, and (R)wanda. Instead, I look at the word as it is on the page to see how it connects to the other words in the puzzle. That's my problem...

I'm reading this much later in the day. According to Connections Companion, the difficulty level was 2.6 out of 5.

Starting things off in the easiest category always means things get harder from here, but it didn't take much, if any, scrutiny to realize that this word is associated with “consideration,” “reflection,” and “thought.”

Next came the green categories of “flint,” “lighter,” “magnifying glass,” and “matches.” Or, in my case, if I've seen enough horror movies about people getting lost in the woods to know everything I need to build a fire (and it's my own responsibility to do so, after all, there's a 90% chance the monster will find me).

Half-remembering what I learned in high school biology class, I struck out a few times trying to connect the microscope and slides to other clues. However, the scientific line made me think of X-rays, and I realized that Factor, Files, Games, and Ray all take on new meaning when preceded by an X. I had the microscope, the slides, and the specimens, but all I was missing was the stein.