Connections is a game from the New York Times that challenges you to find the association between words. It sounds easy, but it isn’t—Connections categories can be almost anything, and they’re usually quite specific. If you need a hand getting the answers, we’ve got you covered.
What Is Connections?
Connections is a game from the New York Times. The objective is simple: sort 16 words into groups of 4. Each group of words will be connected by some common idea or theme. That common element could be anything. We have seen everything from games that rely on the number of letters in the words to categories that require you to spot an extra letter at the end of the word. Sometimes they’re references to economics, other times they reference fairy tales. There is no telling what sort of association there will be between words.
Once you’re confident you understand the connection, select 4 words, then hit “Submit.” You have only four attempts in total, so don’t be too guess-happy.
Hints for Today’s Connections Groups
Here are a few hints for the 402nd Connections game to get you started:
- Yellow: Places you may go while running errands.
- Green: To prevent from doing something.
- Blue: Other words include a troop, colony, or a murder.
- Purple: Think executive branch.
If you still need help, the actual group names are:
- Yellow: Buildings Around Town
- Green: Hinder
- Blue: Animal Group Names
- Purple: Start of U.S. Presidents
Today’s NYT Connections Answers
Buildings Around Town (Yellow):
Bank, Laundromat, Post Office, Supermarket
Hinder (Green):
Check, Curb, Hamper, Inhibit
Animal Group Names (Blue):
Pack, Pride, School, Swarm
Starts of U.S. Presidents (Purple):
Bide, Cart, Nix, Wash
How Did We Solve This Connections Game?
July 17th was another very average game.
Bank, laundromat, post office, and supermarket were all places you’d find in a city or town, and nothing else really fit with any of them. Check was tempting to link with bank, however. The Yellow group was “Buildings Around Town.”
I started with inhibit next, since the word really only has one meaning: “to slow down” or “prevent.” With that in mind, check, curb, and hamper all seemed like reasonable choices, though once again, hamper and cart (as in things you might put laundry in) tempted me. The Green group was “Hinder,” which nicely matched with the original definition of inhibit I worked with.
With 8 words left, things came together even easier. Pack, pride, school, and swarm are all terms for groups of animals—a pack of dogs, a pride of lions, a school of fish, and a swarm of bees, as examples. They were in the Blue group, “Animal Group Names.”
Bide, cart, nix, and wash were much more difficult, however. I tried putting words after them to no avail, then randomly started sticking on additional letters (and groups of letters) to see if something stuck. Eventually, I landed on Carter and it occurred to me that I was looking at a list of US president’s last names with some letter lopped off the end. Biden, Carter, Nixon, and Washington. By happy coincidence, alphabetical order is also reverse chronological order in this case.
Purple was “Starts of U.S. Presidents.”
How Do You Guess Connections Groups?
There is no quick, reliable way to approach Connections like there is with Wordle, since Connections isn’t algorithmic. However, there are a few things to keep in mind that can help.
- Look for similar parts of speech. Are some words verbs and others nouns? Are some adjectives? Try mentally grouping them based on those categories and see if any other patterns jump out at you.
- Are the words synonyms? Sometimes categories will just be synonyms for a phrase, or very close to synonyms. Don’t rely too closely on this, though. Occasionally, Connections will deliberately throw in words that are sometimes synonyms to mislead you.
- Try saying the words. Sometimes, saying the words helps. One puzzle we saw included the words go, rate, faster, clip, pace, speed, move, commute, and hurry—all of which are obviously related to the idea of motion. However, when you say them, it becomes a little more obvious that only four (go, move, hurry, faster) are things you’d actually say to prompt someone to get moving.
- Expect the red herring. Connections usually has words that could be plausibly, yet incorrectly, grouped together. Take the words Bud, Corona, and Light, as an example. You might instinctively see those three words together and assume they’re lumped together in a category related to beer—but they weren’t.
- Look for distinct words. If a word on your board doesn’t have multiple meanings or can really only be used in one context, try using that word as the basis for a category.
- Shuffle the board. Sometimes, moving words around will help you look at them in new ways.
If you didn’t solve this one, don’t feel too bad—there’s always tomorrow! And those words may align with a topic you’re interested in, giving you a leg up on the competition.
