June 22Nd Edition of The New York Times Word Game Insights – Connections Clues Decoded (#377)

Quick Links

• What Is Connections?
• Hints for Today’s Connections Groups
• Today’s NYT Connections Answers
• How Did We Solve This Connections Game?
• How Do You Guess Connections Groups?

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 377th Connections game to get you started:

• Yellow: When you can’t catch a break.
• Green: Things you use on the green.
• Blue: Scary films.
• Purple: Processed meat.

If you still need help, the actual group names are:

• Yellow: One Thing After Another
• Green: Kinds of Golf Clubs
• Blue: Horror Movies, with “The.”
• Purple: Words for Sausage

Today’s NYT Connections Answers

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One Thing After Another (Yellow):

Chain, Series, String, Train

Kinds of Golf Club (Green):

Driver, Iron, Wedge, Wood

Horror Movies, with “The” (Blue):

Birds, Fog, Omen, Ring

Words for Sausage (Purple):

Brat, Dog, Frank, Link

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How Did We Solve This Connections Game?

June 22nd was a little difficult for me, but there wasn’t anything spectacularly hard about it.

The first group I spotted was Purple, “Words for Sausage,” likely because I happened to be eating some sausage as I looked at the Connections game for the first time. Brat, dog, frank, and link are all words (or types) of sausage.

I randomly jumped to the word string next;there was no particular reason. A “string of events” refers to a sequence or series of events, and that informed what sort of words I was looking for. Series is actually on the list, so I grabbed that. A “chain of events” is pretty much synonymous with string of events, so I went with chain, too. The only word besides link (which had already been used) that could possibly fit into the idea was train. Yellow, “One Thing After Another,” included the words chain, series, string, and train.

That left 8 words, none of which seemed to have any connection that I could suss out.

Eventually, after about 200 shuffles, Birds, Fog, Omen, and Ring wound up next to each other and I realized that they were all words in horror movie titles, specifically movies with titles of the form “The Ring,” “The Omen,” and so on. Blue was “Horror Movies, with The.”

That left driver, iron, wedge, and wood—words I couldn’t connect no matter how much I tried. They were actually in the Green group, “Kinds of Golf Clubs.” Turns out I just need to up my golf game.

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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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.