Each day’s game of NYT Connections goes live at midnight local time. Before we get to today’s Connections hints and answers, here are Monday’s:
Hey there, Connectors! I hope your week is off to a terrific start.
The wonderful actor Nick Offerman hopped onto Reddit this week to answer questions from users while promoting his new film, which is called Sovereign. One person asked, “What do you think many young men who get drawn to the Andrew Tates of the world get ‘wrong’ about masculinity, and why? Who or what for you has shaped your image of what it means to be a man?”
I found Offerman’s response very insightful. I think he hit the nail on the head here:
I think that the toxic version of masculinity that is so appealing to young men feels superficially good to them because it seems to answer the vulnerability and insecurity we all feel as humans. Just like so much of the hate messaging that is so popular these days, it gives the illusion of superiority and “destroying” ones perceived foes.
Learning to be empathetic and open-minded and vulnerable is more complicated and can be scary, when one runs the risk of being labeled all of the perjorative terms the Bros use, but I am here to tell you and them that in real life, hugging will get you a lot more manly points than punching, and that women and other human groups will respond much more positively to resepct and good manners than to any facade of machismo or violence.
Before we begin, we have a great little community on Discord, where we chat about NYT Connections, the rest of the NYT games and all kinds of other stuff. Everyone who has joined has been lovely. It’s a fun hangout spot, and you’re more than welcome to hang out with us.
Discord is also the best way to give me any feedback about the column, especially on the rare (or not-so-rare) occasions that I mess something up. I don’t look at the comments or Twitter much. You can also read my weekend editions of this column at my new newsletter, Pastimes.
Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Tuesday, July 22 are coming right up.
How To Play Connections
Connections is a free, popular New York Times daily word game. You get a new puzzle at midnight every day. You can play on the NYT’s website or Games app.
You’re presented with a grid of 16 words. Your task is to arrange them into four groups of four by figuring out the links between them. The groups could be things like items you can click, names for research study participants or words preceded by a body part.
There’s only one solution for each puzzle, and you’ll need to be careful when it comes to words that might fit into more than one category. You can shuffle the words to perhaps help you see links between them.
Each group is color coded. The yellow group is usually the easiest to figure out, blue and green fall in the middle, and the purple group is usually the most difficult one. The purple group often involves wordplay.
Select four words you think go together and press Submit. If you make a guess and you’re incorrect, you’ll lose a life. If you’re close to having a correct group, you might see a message telling you that you’re one word away from getting it right, but you’ll still need to figure out which one to swap.
If you make four mistakes, it’s game over. Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen with the help of some hints, and, if you’re really struggling, today’s Connections answers. As with Wordle and other similar games, it’s easy to share results with your friends on social media and group chats.
If you have an NYT All Access or Games subscription, you can access the publication’s Connections archive. This includes every previous game of Connections, so you can go back and play any of those that you have missed.
Aside from the first 60 games or so, you should be able to find our hints Google if you need them! Just click here and add the date of the game for which you need clues or the answers to the search query.
What Are Today’s Connections Hints?
Scroll slowly! Just after the hints for each of today’s Connections groups, I’ll reveal what the groups are without immediately telling you which words go into them.
Today’s 16 words are…
- CHESS
- CHEEK
- WHOOPIE
- CUSHION
- TEMPER
- CHECKERS
- HUMBLE
- ATTITUDE
- LIP
- SOFTEN
- HONEYCOMB
- CUTIE
- DAMPEN
- CAMO
- MOUTH
- STRIPES
And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:
- 🟨 Yellow group — insolence
- 🟩 Green group — euphemisms can come in handy here
- 🟦 Blue group — it’s just the same thing over and over!!
- 🟪 Purple group — like mag, American and porky
One Word For Each Connections Group
Need some extra help?
Be warned: we’re starting to get into spoiler territory.
Let’s take a look at one word for each group.
Today’s Connections word hints are…
- 🟨 Yellow group — MOUTH
- 🟩 Green group — TEMPER
- 🟦 Blue group — HONEYCOMB
- 🟪 Purple group — HUMBLE
What Are Today’s Connections Groups?
Today’s Connections groups are…
- 🟨 Yellow group — sassiness
- 🟩 Green group — mitigate
- 🟦 Blue group — patterns
- 🟪 Purple group — _____ pie
What Are Today’s Connections Answers?
Spoiler alert! Don’t scroll any further down the page until you’re ready to find out today’s Connections answers.
This is your final warning!
Today’s Connections answers are…
- 🟨 Yellow group — sassiness (ATTITUDE, CHEEK, LIP, MOUTH)
- 🟩 Green group — mitigate (CUSHION, DAMPEN, SOFTEN, TEMPER)
- 🟦 Blue group — patterns (CAMO, CHECKERS, HONEYCOMB, STRIPES)
- 🟪 Purple group — _____ pie (CHESS, CUTIE, HUMBLE, WHOOPIE)
The WHOOPIE CUSHION reference on the top line was fun. I suspected from the outset that CHESS, CHECKERS and HONEYCOMB might go together in the sense of a grid, but didn’t see what else could go with them.
I got the yellows quickly, but a guess of TEMPER, HUMBLE, SOFTEN and DAMPEN put me one away from a group. I realized a little too late that CUSHION was a better fit than HUMBLE and thus I had the greens.
CAMO (camouflage) was my entry point into the blues. That left the purples, for which I did figure out the connection. I don’t recall ever having had CHESS pie. CUTIE pie is such a lovely term of endearment. HUMBLE pie can either be a reference to the classic rock band or the expression “eat a slice of humble pie” which means to admit that one was wrong in a show of humility.
No perfect game this time out, but my overall streak now sits at 146. Here’s my grid for today:
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟪🟩🟩
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟪🟪🟪🟪
That’s all there is to it for today’s Connections clues and answers. Be sure to check my blog tomorrow for hints and the solution for Tuesday’s game if you need them.
P.S. A new YouTube show debuted last week that shows what athletes get up to in their time off in cities that they like. The first episode features Naomi Osaka (whose Hana Kuma production company helped make the show) in Tokyo, a city I also love. Osaka spends time with friends, visits some of her favorite places to eat and practices kintsugi, an artform I’ve written about before. The video is a fun watch, and I now have a couple more restaurants to try the next time I go to Japan:
Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Be kind to yourself and each other! Call someone you love!
Please follow my blog for more coverage of NYT Connections and other word games, and even some video game news, insights and analysis. It helps me out a lot! Sharing this column with other people who play Connections would be appreciated too. You can also read my weekend editions of this column at my new newsletter, Pastimes.
