Grid and difficulty

The 16-word grid contains PARTY, ACTOR, HANDY, GRAND, UPRIGHT, HALF, STEP, PLAYER, WISE, CONCERT, AGENT, SHOW, GREAT, FROM NEANDER, NEANDER, and GIG.

Hints and clues

For those needing help, the puzzle offers spoiler-free hints:

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• 🟡 Yellow: “Your guitarist friend insists you attend this.”
• 🟢 Green: “Stakeholder.”
• 🔵 Blue: “Found in a family tree.”
• 🟣 Purple: “Human evolution.”

If more guidance is needed, one word from each category is provided:

• 🟡 Yellow: CONCERT
• 🟢 Green: ACTOR
• 🔵 Blue: GRAND
• 🟣 Purple: FROM NEANDER

Categories and solutions

The yellow group, Musical Performance, includes CONCERT, GIG, SET, and SHOW. These describe live music events, whether in intimate venues or large arenas.

The green group, Participant, features ACTOR, AGENT, PARTY, and PLAYER. These terms refer to roles in projects, deals, or sports, though PARTY may confuse those expecting a social gathering.

Blue’s Family Relationship Modifiers—GRAND, GREAT, HALF, and STEP—work as prefixes for kinship terms. Examples include a GRANDparent or STEPsibling.

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The purple group, Descriptors For Our Human Ancestors, presents the biggest challenge. FROM NEANDER (Neanderthal), HANDY (Homo habilis), UPRIGHT (Homo erectus), and WISE (Homo sapiens) each represent a stage of human development. The partial phrase FROM NEANDER makes this category harder to spot.

Solvers who quickly identify the yellow and green groups may still struggle with purple. The puzzle rewards those who look beyond literal meanings, particularly for words like WISE, which could mislead into categories about advice.