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 #559 Answer:
Detailed breakdown continues just below - keep scrolling
Todayâs LinkedIn Pinpoint puzzle #559 begins with a curious pair: Air and Hair. My first instinct was to look for a theme of personal care or tools, but the next clue, Makeup, immediately stretched that theory thin. As Paint and Tooth appeared, it became clear that a simple category wouldnât work, pushing me toward a more structural, wordplay-based connection.
My brain immediately jumped to âThings you do to yourselfâ when I saw Air and Hair. âAir dryingâ your hair and brushing it felt like a solid link. When Makeup appeared, I thought, âOkay, makeup application, still in the personal grooming zone.â I felt confident for a moment, even considering if the connector was âThings you applyâ.
Then Paint hit the board. My entire theory crumbled. âPaintâ could fit the âapplyâ theory, but it felt like a huge stretch. I was stuck. I started wondering if I was supposed to think about the physical objects themselves. I even thought, maybe theyâre all types of âbrushesâ? But Air and Tooth made no sense. It was a genuine head-scratcher.
Things you apply
This feels plausible because you apply makeup, paint, and toothpaste (with a toothbrush). You also 'apply' air in contexts like an airbrush. However, this is a weak fit for 'Hair' and doesn't truly work for 'Tooth' itself. The theme breaks because it requires reinterpreting several clues.
Personal grooming items
Hair, Makeup, and Tooth fit this category perfectly. This is a very tempting trap. The theme immediately falls apart on 'Air' and 'Paint', which are not typically considered personal grooming items, making it an invalid solution.
Ends with tools
A more abstract guess, thinking 'hair tool' or 'paint tool'. This is overly broad and doesn't create a specific, consistent phrase. The clues don't naturally lead to a 'tool' word, especially 'Air', making this a dead end.
Grammar & flow: pairing the connector with Apple, Banana, Orange, and Grape produces everyday English and keeps number/tense intacta strong signal that "Words that come before "brush"" 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 "Words that come before "brush"" wins on simplicity and reach.
| Word | Origin | In Context (Usage) | Meaning & Usage |
|---|
Beware the category trap
My first instinct was to lump âHair,â âMakeup,â and âToothâ into a âpersonal careâ category. This puzzle teaches that a thematic link is often a red herring. Always test if your category works for every single clue before committing.
Scan for word components, not just meaning
The solution isnât in the definition of the clues, but in their structure. Learning to look for a common prefix, suffix, or a word that can be appended to all clues is a powerful strategy for puzzles like this one.
Use an outlier to find the pattern
The clue âPaintâ was the key that broke my initial theory. When a clue seems out of place, donât discard it; use it. Ask why itâs different and let that divergence lead you to the real connection that was hiding in plain sight.
The connector is âWords that come before âbrush'â. For example, Air + brush = Airbrush, and Hair + brush = Hairbrush.
While âHair,â âMakeup,â and âToothâ relate to grooming, the clues âAirâ and âPaintâ do not fit this category. A valid connector must work for all five clues without exception.
No, because only âHairâ and âPaintâ would form a common phrase (hair comb, paint comb). âAir,â âMakeup,â and âToothâ do not naturally precede âcomb,â so it fails to connect all the clues.
If a category-based theory isnât working, immediately shift to testing structural wordplay. Try adding a common word before, after, or inside each clue to see if a consistent phrase emerges.
