Good morning! We're going to play Connections, the clever word game from the NYT that challenges you to group answers into various categories. It can be tricky, so read on if you need hints.
What should you do once you're done? Play more word games, of course. I also have articles with daily Wordle hints and answers, Strands hints and answers, and Quordle hints and answers if you need help with those topics as well.
SPOILER WARNING: Below you'll find information about today's NYT Connections, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.
NYT Connections Today (Set #452): Words of the Day
Today’s NYT Connections words are…
- TRIED
- BAG
- COLOR
- BAG
- RECEPTION
- BURST
- LAND
- PAN
- CUT
- BURST
- YARD
- SCORE
- BANG
- ENGAGE
- TRIM
- ATTEMPT
Today's NYT Connections (Set #452): Clue #1: Group Clues
What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?
- Yellow: Things that do to hair
- Green: Verbally disapprove
- Blue: Acquire
- Purple: Gridiron Data
Need more clues?
We're now in spoiler territory, but read on if you want to know what the four themed answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…
Today's NYT Connections (Game #452): Clue #2: Group Answers
What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: HAIRSTYLING OFFERS
- GREEN: CRITICIZE
- BLUE: GET
- PURPLE: MEASUREMENT IN FOOTBALL STATISTICS
Well, the answers are below, so DON'T CONTINUE FOLLOWING THE PAGE IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
Today's NYT Connections (Set #452): The Answers
The answers to today's Connections game, number 452, are…
- YELLOW: HAIRSTYLING OFFERS Blowout, color, cut, trim
- GREEN: CRITICIZE HIT, BANG, HIT, HIT
- BLUE: GET BAG, LAND, SCORE, HOOK
- PURPLE: MEASUREMENT IN FOOTBALL STATISTICS ATTEMPT, RECEPTION, THROW, YARD
- My rating: Moderate
- My rating: Fail
Do you know how the five stages of grief play out? I'm going through something similar with Connections. First, enjoyment in finding a new game to play every day, then satisfaction While fighting with him, most of the time I won, sometimes I lost. That was followed by bewilderment As I started losing weight regularly, then self-loathing How I decided I was too stupid to win every day. And now? Now I've arrived boredom:It's just not fun to play every day.
The connections seem to have almost no balance. Some days are incredibly hard, others are incredibly easy. Within a game, a “blue” group (supposedly the second hardest) can be much easier to solve than an “easy” yellow one. There are words that sometimes no one can be expected to know (or to know that they can be used in a particular context, at least). And there is a huge geographic bias that puts anyone outside the US at a huge disadvantage. And that last factor in particular has me having to guess once or twice almost every day.
It's just not as fun as Wordle or Strands. Playing it is stressful and often unsatisfying.
Today there's a group about football (yawn! I guess we'll have baseball tomorrow, huh?) and another about hair salons that includes the word BLOWOUT, a term I'd never heard in that context. I solved one group (the blue one that said “get”) but couldn't do anything about the remaining 12 words and effectively gave up and guessed randomly until I lost.
Maybe I should have solved one of the others; maybe I should read more or should spend more time on it. But today at least I didn't look at the answers and think, “Oh, idiot Marc, you should have solved that.” Instead, I shrugged and went on with my day, which is presumably not the attitude the NYT is going for here.
How did your day go? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday's NYT Connections Answers (Wednesday, September 4, Issue #451)
- YELLOW: VERY SMALL QUANTITY TRACK, DESTRUCTION, TOUCH, TRACE
- GREEN: PUPPY PURCHASES BED, BOWL, NECKLACE, BOX
- BLUE: HELP ORGANIZE A PARTY ATTEND, ORGANIZE, PLAN, LAUNCH
- PURPLE: SYMBOLS ON A KEYBOARD ARM, MASK SIGN, PAD, STAR
What is NYT Connections?
NYT Connections is one of the increasingly popular word games created by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that have something in common, and each group has a different level of difficulty: green is easy, yellow is a little harder, blue is usually quite difficult, and purple is usually very difficult.
The plus side is that you don't technically need to solve the last one, as you'll be able to answer it by process of elimination. Plus, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a bit of wiggle room.
However, it is a bit more complex than something like Wordle and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trick you with tricks. For example, beware of homophones and other wordplay that could disguise the answers.
It can be played for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile devices.
