Permanent answer & walkthrough (Pinpoint Today archive)
Pinpoint Answer Today asks: what links apple, banana, orange, and grape â and what story do they share? Follow the spoiler-safe hints one by one, then reveal the final connection and see how each clue fits together.
apple banana orange grape â What connects apple, banana, orange, grape?
LinkedIn Pinpoint #556 Answer:
Detailed breakdown continues just below - keep scrolling
At first glance, todayâs Pinpoint board felt like it was about household items or machines. The âVacuum cleanerâ and âAquariumâ clues strongly suggested a domestic setting, and I started looking for a pattern related to common home systems. But then âCar engineâ and âDrip coffee makerâ appeared, and that simple theory started to fall apart. The final clue, âEmail software (targeting spam)â, pushed the board completely out of the physical home and into the digital world, forcing a much more abstract line of thinking about what these disparate objects have in common structurally.
My first thought when I saw âVacuum cleanerâ was that the answer might be âthings that require electricityâ. It felt like a solid, simple starting point. When âAquariumâ popped up, it seemed to fit perfectly. I was confident enough that I almost typed it in, but decided to wait for a third clue. Then âCar engineâ appeared. While many modern engines rely on electrical systems, the core function isnât purely electricalâitâs mechanical and chemical. The theory was already getting a bit wobbly. By the time âDrip coffee makerâ showed up, my initial idea was on life support. While it uses electricity, so do countless other items that werenât on the list. The pattern felt too broad and ultimately meaningless.
The final clue, âEmail software (targeting spam)â, was the one that completely destroyed my electrical theory and forced me to start over. I stopped thinking about power sources and started thinking about function. What does a vacuum do? It pulls dirt out of the air. What does an aquarium do? It keeps water clean. The word âcleanâ and âpurifyâ kept bouncing around in my head. Then it hit me: what component in each of these things performs that cleaning or purifying action? A filter.
Things that contain a liquid
This guess is tempting because 'Aquarium' and 'Drip coffee maker' are defined by the liquids they hold. 'Car engine' also fits, as it contains oil and coolant. However, the theory falls apart on 'Vacuum cleaner' (which deals with air and solids) and 'Email software (targeting spam)', which is entirely digital and contains no physical liquid, breaking the theme on two of the five clues.
Things that improve an environment
This is a strong but ultimately too broad idea. A 'Vacuum cleaner' improves a room's cleanliness, and an 'Aquarium' improves a space's ambiance. An email filter improves a digital environment. But a 'Car engine' doesn't inherently 'improve' its environmentâit creates exhaust, and its purpose is locomotion, not environmental enhancement. The theme fails on the 'Car engine' clue.
Appliances with moving parts
This guess works well for 'Vacuum cleaner', 'Car engine', and 'Drip coffee maker', which all have visible mechanical motion. It even feels plausible for the digital 'moving parts' of an email client. The critical failure is the 'Aquarium', which can be a completely static system with no moving components other than the water circulation, which often relies on a filterâa core component of the correct answer.
Grammar & flow: pairing the connector with Apple, Banana, Orange, and Grape produces everyday English and keeps number/tense intacta strong signal that "Things with filters!" is the right lens for today's LinkedIn Pinpoint answer.
Coverage check: the same connector explains every clue without exceptions. Competing ideas either break on edge cases or demand awkward hyphenations, so "Things with filters!" wins on simplicity and reach.
| Word | Origin | In Context (Usage) | Meaning & Usage |
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Test functional theories over categorical ones
Itâs easy to group clues by category (e.g., âhousehold itemsâ). For this puzzle, shifting from a categorical theory to a functional oneâfocusing on what each item *does* rather than what it *is*âwas the key to finding the common thread.
Let your final clues redefine the question
The first three clues might support a decent theory, but the last two clues often exist to break it. The âEmail software (targeting spam)â clue in this puzzle is designed to force you to abandon any purely physical or domestic theory and think abstractly about function.
Look for a hidden common component
Sometimes the connection isnât an adjective that describes the object, but a smaller, hidden part that all the objects share. Here, thinking about âfiltersâ as a component rather than a descriptive word unlocked the solution for all five clues.
Don't be afraid of a 'dirty' first guess
Your initial theory, like âthings that use electricity,â will often be wrong. Donât see it as a failure, but as a necessary step to eliminate possibilities and help you see the true, more elegant pattern once youâre forced to look for it.
The connector is âThings with filtersâ. A vacuum has a dust filter, an aquarium has a water filter, a car has an oil filter, a coffee maker uses a paper filter, and email software uses a spam filter.
While most items use some form of power, the connection is inconsistent. An aquariumâs filter uses power, but the aquarium as a whole object is a container. More importantly, the specific functionâpurification via a filterâis a much stronger and more precise link that applies to every single clue.
Absolutely. An air purifier is a perfect example of a âThing with a filterâ and would make for a great sixth clue. It directly reinforces the core concept of removing particulates from the air, just like a vacuum cleaner.
That would make the puzzle significantly harder. The clue âCar engineâ specifically points to a subsystem with a filter (oil, air, fuel). A âCarâ as a whole is too broad, and the connection to âfiltersâ would become much less obvious.
