Note: Make sure to complete today’s NYT Connections before reading further! We’ll be getting into spoilers for today’s game pretty quickly. If you need some help to complete the grid, you can find my NYT Connections hints and answers right here:
Hey there, Connectors! Welcome to my deeper dive into today’s Connections answers. The idea behind this is to help clear things up for anyone who isn’t sure how today’s groups fit together.
If I’ve missed any red herrings or misunderstood something, let me know via email or on Discord. I don’t typically look at X or check the comments here.
I’m going to assume that you’ve already beaten today’s game. We’re going straight into spoiler territory here. So, consider this your one and only warning.
Here are today’s NYT Connections answers explained (and any red herrings I spot) for Wednesday, July 8:
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Today’s NYT Connections Answers Explained
Connections – Yellow Group
🟨 cut into thin pieces (GRATE, PLANE, SHAVE, SLIVER)
The category title handles things for us here!
Connections – Green Group
🟩 motif (DRIFT, PLOT, THEME, THREAD)
These refer to things that are often repeated in art and fiction. You can can find a great many examples at TV Tropes.
Connections – Blue Group
🟦 guitar-playing techniques (PICK, PLUCK, STRUM, TAP)
Here are tutorial videos for each of these techniques. I should probably practice these!
To PICK a guitar means to play individual strings with a plectrum:
PLUCKING is similar, but you play strings with your fingers instead. This can also be called fingerstyle or finger picking:
You can STRUM a guitar with your plectrum or fingers. It’s more about chords than individual notes:
The TAP is a fun tool in a guitar player’s arsenal. It’s typically used to make solos more dynamic and interesting:
Connections – Purple Group
🟪 house of _____ (CARDS, LORDS, WAX, WORSHIP)
“House of CARDS” has several meanings, but it’s fundamentally a structure built with playing cards:
The House of LORDS is the upper house of the UK parliament, to which members are appointed rather than elected. I have many thoughts about that, but this is neither the time nor the place.
I’ve never seen the original, but I did enjoy the 2005 version of House of WAX. It’s a pretty fun slasher film.
A house of WORSHIP is a church, synagogue, temple, mosque etc
Connections – Red Herrings
The only red herring I saw today was the pairing of PLANE and WAX, which can both be preceded by “soul.”
If you’d like to chat about today’s game of Connections and just about anything else with me and a very lovely group of people, you can do just that in our Discord community. We’d love for you to hang out with us.
I’ll be back with another set of NYT Connections hints and answers tomorrow, as well as another edition of this one, all going well. You’ll be able to find both of those on my Forbes author page when the time comes (following me there helps me out too!). As for the weekend editions of my NYT Connections hints and answers column, I’m currently doing that via my newsletter, Pastimes.