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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 408th Connections game to get you started:
Bug, Pork, Speed, Tweet
How Did We Solve This Connections Game?
July 23rd wasn’t too bad, though I’m not sure how accurate Purple is.
The word I started with was charlatan, mostly because it has no competing or ambiguous definitions. It refers to someone who claims to have knowledge or ability beyond what they really do. In other words, a fraud, quack, or sham. Those 4 words—charlatan, fraud, quack, and sham, belonged to the Yellow group, which was “Impostor.”
Noise, peep, sound, and word are all auditory terms, and the only ones on the board besides tweet. Tweet and peep could both even be used in the context of bird noises, but the important bit seemed to be that peep could also be a human sound, and so can noise, sound, and word, whereas tweet can’t be. Noise, peep, sound, and word were in the Green group, “Utterance.”
A showboat is someone that likes to show off, and it can also be used a verb “showboating,” to mean the same thing. Ham, hot dog, and peacock can all be related to someone that likes to be the center of attention or show off, so it seemed likely they were in the same group. The Blue group was “One Who Likes Showing Off,” and included ham, hot dog, peacock, and showboat. The real question is: why are so these pig-associated food products synonyms for showing off?
That left bug, pork, speed, and tweet. I tried every usual trick to figure out the connection before finally giving up, only to learn that Purple was “Looney Tunes Characters Minus a Letter.” However, that sort of threw me off. They’re often called Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Speedy Gonzales, and Tweety Bird—and only two of them (Tweety and Bugs) are commonly called just the first word.
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.
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.
