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 420th Connections game to get you started:
- Yellow: When you live through something.
- Green: Things you send for special occasions.
- Blue: When you get the instructions.
- Purple: I, but a different spelling.
If you still need help, the actual group names are:
- Yellow: Survive
- Green: Kinds of Greeting Cards
- Blue: Are We Clear
- Purple: Words After “Eye”
Today’s NYT Connections Answers
Survive (Yellow):
Get By, Hack It, Make Do, Manage
Kinds of Greeting Card (Green):
Birthday, Congratulations, Get Well, Thank You
Are We Clear (Blue):
Capisce, Get It, See, Understand
Words After “Eye” (Purple):
Candy, Contact, Shadow, Witness
How Did We Solve This Connections Game?
August 5th’s game came very easily.
I started by shuffling a few times for no particular reason. Birthday and congratulations wound up together, and that clued me in to types of cards you might send someone for a special occasion. With that in mind, I also picked out get well and thank you. They were in the Green group, “Kinds of Greeting Cards.”
Get By, Hack It, Make Do, and Manage all made me think of improvisation in the face of difficulty, flying by the seat of your pants just to survive—that sort of thing. They were in the Yellow group, “Survive.”
Capisce, Get It, See, and Understand are all things you might say to someone when you want to be sure they’re clear about what you mean. It brings to mind a parent lecturing their kid, or something similar. Blue was “Are We Clear?”
That left candy, contact, shadow, and witness in Purple. I started going through the usual methods to solve it—guessing missing words or letters—and eventually settled on “eye.” Each word in the Purple group can follow the word “eye” to refer to something distinct. As you might imagine, the Purple group was “Words after Eye.”
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.
