If you’re looking for the August 9 Connections hints and answers, we’ve got you covered.
Hey there, Connectors! I hope you had a fantastic weekend. I’m delighted to be back with you for another weekday run of this column.
As always, I’m gonna get things started with a fun, upbeat song. Let’s get those endorphins flowing at the start of the week.
Since my faves were challenged to cover this song (and did a great job with it), this time around I’m going with “Maniac” by Michael Sembello. I would say the lyrics haven’t exactly aged well. Still, it’s got a killer beat and good luck getting that harmony out of your head:
Before we start, we’ve got a lovely community on Discord, where we chat about Connections, the rest of the NYT games and all kinds of things. You’re more than welcome to join us!
Also, my weekend editions of this column are available over on my newsletter, Pastimes. I sometimes write about other things that are on my mind there as well.
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Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Monday, August 10 are coming right up. Let’s get rolling!
How To Play Connections
Connections is a free New York Times daily word game that you can play on the NYT’s website or Games app. If you have an NYT All Access or Games subscription, you can access the Connections archive, which includes every previous game.
Connections presents you with a grid of 16 words (sometimes phrases, symbols or numbers). The aim is to arrange them into four groups of four. You don’t know how they hit together or what the category for each group is: that’s what you have to figure out.
There’s only one correct solution and there are often red herrings. You can guess incorrectly three times. A fourth wrong guess, and it’s game over.
Each group is color coded. The yellow group is usually the easiest to deduce, followed by blue, green and purple. Often, the yellow and green groups have synonyms, the blues have cultural references and the purples have some kind of wordplay involved. But this is not a hard and fast rule. Be ready for curveballs – part of the fun of Connections is in how the NYT shakes things up to keep you on your toes.
As with Wordle and similar games, it’s easy to share results with your friends using an emoji-based grid. The game tracks your progress too.
Many players take pride in having long win streaks or getting a reverse rainbow – correctly guessing the purple, blue, green and yellow groups in that order with no mistakes. That adds an extra little challenge.
Today’s NYT Connections Word List
Scroll slowly!
After today’s Connections word list, I’ll give you a hint for each category. After that, I’ll reveal one word that goes into each group. Then I’ll reveal the categories, followed by the full answers.
Got it? Cool.
Today’s 16 words are…
- BILLY GOAT
- BALANCE DUE
- WILLY-NILLY
- MAIL DELIVERY
- BILL TO
- HELTER-SKELTER
- WILL CALL
- THE DEVIL
- DOCTOR STRANGE
- ORDER NUMBER
- ANY OLD HOW
- MOBILE TICKET
- UNIT PRICE
- COLONEL SANDERS
- PRINT-AT-HOME
- AT RANDOM
A Hint For Today’s Connections Groups
The hints for today’s Connections categories are:
- 🟨 Yellow group — without much rhyme or reason
- 🟩 Green group — how to get what you need to get in
- 🟦 Blue group — they’re in (a) charge
- 🟪 Purple group — a worthy chin-scratcher
One Answer For Each Connections Group
Be warned: we’re starting to get into spoiler territory.
Let’s take a look at one answer for each group.
Here we go…
- 🟨 Yellow group — HELTER-SKELTER
- 🟩 Green group — WILL CALL
- 🟦 Blue group — ORDER NUMBER
- 🟪 Purple group — THE DEVIL
Today’s Connections Categories
Today’s Connections groups are…
- 🟨 Yellow group — haphazardly
- 🟩 Green group — ways to receive event tickets
- 🟦 Blue group — sections on an invoice
- 🟪 Purple group — famous goatees
What Is Today’s Connections Answer?
Spoiler alert! Don’t scroll any further down the page until you’re ready to find out today’s Connections answers.
This is your last chance to look away.
This is your final warning!
Today’s Connections answers are…
- 🟨 Yellow group — haphazardly (ANY OLD HOW, AT RANDOM, HELTER-SKELTER, WILLY-NILLY)
- 🟩 Green group — ways to receive event tickets (MAIL DELIVERY, MOBILE TICKET, PRINT-AT-HOME, WILL CALL)
- 🟦 Blue group — sections on an invoice (BALANCE DUE, BILL TO, ORDER NUMBER, UNIT PRICE)
- 🟪 Purple group — famous goatees (BILLY GOAT, COLONEL SANDERS, DOCTOR STRANGE, THE DEVIL)
The ticketing options were first up for me today. I miss proper physical tickets. It was nice to have a collection of them. I had so many movie tickets back in the day.
The invoice phrases were up next. I thought those were pretty straightforward. I’m familiar with all the phrases in the yellow group as well, so I could see how those fit together.
That left the purples. I didn’t see the category before submitting those terms, but I was amused once the answer popped up to complete my 526th consecutive win.
How did you get on this time? Here’s my grid:
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟪🟪🟪🟪
I’m absolutely wiped, so as much as I don’t like doing this, I’m going to have to skip the Answers Explained column today. Sorry, gang. WILLY-NILLY, WILL CALL, BILL TO and BILLY GOAT all start with shortened forms of “William,” so that’s your main red herring.
Be sure to check my blog for hints and the answer for tomorrow’s game of Connections if you need them.
P.S. For no real reason other than this song getting stuck in my head, let’s do a classic rock theme week in these recommendations. We’ll get things started with “Fortunate Son” by Creedence Clearwater Revival. It’s so much shorter than I’d have thought!
Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Be kind to yourself and each other! Call someone you love!
Please follow my blog for more NYT Connections hints and help with other word games, and even some video game news, insights and analysis. I’d really appreciate that as it helps me out. If you share this column with others who play Connections, that would be lovely too. You can also read my weekend editions of this column and more of my writing at my newsletter, Pastimes.
