Solve the Puzzle with New York Times - Connection Game, July 8Th Episode #393 Unveiled

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 393rd Connections game to get you started:

• Yellow: Helpful hints.
• Green: Another word might be resilience.
• Blue: What you do when you like being somewhere.
• Purple: What is contained within each word?

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

• Yellow: Bit of Advice
• Green: Fortitude
• Blue: Spend Time At
• Purple: Words Ending in Numbers

Today’s NYT Connections Answers

Bit of Advice (Yellow):

Pointer, Suggestion, Tip, Trick

Fortitude (Green):

Grit, Resolve, Spirit, Will

Spend Time At (Blue):

Frequent, Haunt, Patronize, Visit

Words Ending in Numbers (Purple):

Canine, Freight, Often, Ozone

How Did We Solve This Connections Game?

July 8th came very easily to me, which was a bit of a relief after the last few games.

The first words I noticed were resolve and will. My first thought was “Things that can be broken,” and I started looking for other similar things that could be broken. That got me spirit, which fit nicely with the theme. However, the only other conceptually-related word I could find was grit, which isn’t used in the way I was envisioning. However, it occurred to them that they’re all synonyms for “Fortitude,” which turned out to be the group name for Green.

I shuffled, and suggestion, tip, and trick wound up next to each other, which made the next group, “Bit of Advice,” really easy to put together. The last word I guessed was pointer, which rounded out the Yellow group.

Visit, frequent, and patronize are loosely synonymous, and are used when someone spends time or goes somewhere. Haunt is often used in the context of ghosts that are stuck in a place, but it can also be used to describe a person spending time somewhere. Together, those 4 words were the Blue group, “Spend Time at.”

That left canine, freight, often, and ozone in the Purple group. As is often the case, I started through my checklist to solve purple. Is there a missing word? No. Is there a common idea between the meanings or uses of the words? Nope. It must be something about the words themselves.

In this case, it eventually dawned on me (after much glowering at the words) that every remaining word ends in a number—canine, freight, often, and ozone. The actual group name was “Words Ending in Numbers.”

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.

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