July 18Th New York Times Connection Challenges: Unlocking Insights (NYT #403)

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 403rd Connections game to get you started:

• Yellow: Large areas in or around buildings.
• Green: Muhammad Ali played in these.
• Blue: A way of describing something that is pretty.
• Purple: When you need to express an emotion over text but words will not do.

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Today’s NYT Connections Answers

Open Space (Yellow):

Court, Plaza, Square, Yard

Boxing Unit (Green):

Bout, Contest, Match, Round

Glitziness (Blue):

Dazzle, Flash, Pomp, Ritz

Emoji (Purple):

Fire, Heart, Skull, Sparkles

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How Did We Solve This Connections Game?

July 18th was very straight forward. There weren’t any groups that required any major logical jumps.

The first group I spotted was Green, “Boxing Unit.” Bout, contest, match, and round are all just words that describe rounds in some kind of contest. I didn’t put it together with boxing, but it wasn’t important.

Court, plaza, square, and yard are all large open spaces you might find in or around buildings. Heart and court tempted me for a second, though, since they could both be related to romance somehow. The Yellow group was “Open Space.”

Dazzle, flash, pomp, and ritz are all words I usually associate with decoration, wealth, and fanciness—not necessarily in a positive way, either. However, they don’t really match with any other remaining words besides maybe sparkles. I did try a guess that included sparkles, but it didn’t work.

Blue was “Glitziness.”

That left fire, heart, skull and sparkles. I tried all the usual tricks for Purple to no avail, then by happy coincidence, I looked at Discord and noticed a message with a fire emoji reaction. Fire, heart, skull, and sparkles are all “Emojis,” which was the Purple group.

That felt almost deceptively literal for Purple.

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.