If you’re looking for the August 18 Connections hints and answers, we’ve got you covered right here:
It’s Wednesday, and you know what that means: it’s time for another round of Connections!
The only reason I still have a Twitter account is so I can scour certain accounts for news for me and my colleagues to write up. I don’t engage on that platform these days, though. I don’t tweet, like any posts or retweet anything.
I think the decision to disengage from Twitter has been really positive for me, as it’s helped me practice better online self care. There have been a number of occasions in recent months where I’ve been tempted to join a conversation on Facebook or Bluesky (or Twitter), often to call out misinformation or detail why someone is very wrong or misinformed. Instead, I remember I don’t need to do that, and it’s probably better for my mental health to refrain from getting involved.
I can’t say I exercise the same restraint on Reddit, though, given the quasi-anonymity I have on that platform. I really should delete my Reddit account!
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!
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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.
Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Wednesday, August 19 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…
- PICNIC
- BASKET
- BREEZE
- ANTS
- BLANKET
- COCOA
- PICKLE
- FOOT
- SNAP
- BASE
- MASK
- SEOUL
- OBSCURE
- RHEO
- CINCH
- HIDE
Today’s NYT Connections Hints
The hints for today’s Connections categories are:
- 🟨 Yellow group — not too tough
- 🟩 Green group — as John Cena might say, you can’t see it
- 🟦 Blue group — like tchouk, slam, roli, ring and floor
- 🟪 Purple group — boldt, looker and munster zinc would fit in here
One Answer For Each NYT 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 — PICNIC
- 🟩 Green group — OBSCURE
- 🟦 Blue group — PICKLE
- 🟪 Purple group — RHIO
Today’s NYT Connections Categories
Today’s Connections groups are…
- 🟨 Yellow group — piece of cake
- 🟩 Green group — conceal
- 🟦 Blue group — words before “ball” in sport names
- 🟪 Purple group — homophones of CGI-animated films
Today’s NYT 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 — piece of cake (BREEZE, CINCH, PICNIC, SNAP)
- 🟩 Green group — conceal (BLANKET, HIDE, MASK, OBSCURE)
- 🟦 Blue group — words before “ball” in sport names (BASE, BASKET, FOOT, PICKLE)
- 🟪 Purple group — homophones of CGI-animated films (ANTS, COCOA, RHIO, SEOUL)
I think I audibly gasped when I opened today’s game and saw a checkerboard. I think the idea here is to replicate the gingham design of a traditional picnic blanket, given that we have lots of picnic references on the grid. Very cute! I really liked it, except for putting COCOA, one of the best things in the world next to PICKLE, one of the worst.
Anyway, BLANKET had to go the rest of the concealment words to get the greens. The yellows were up next after I realized PICNIC went with them.
I suspected from the beginning that RHIO had to be a purple and that there was probably some wordplay going on. It likely was a homophone of some kind, I figured, but it didn’t make sense as a reference to Rio de Janeiro with SEOUL on the grid. I eventually realized that it was a reference to an animated movie, thanks to COCOA (Coco). It took me far longer than I care to admit to remember that the name of the animated film is spelled Antz, so ANTS is technically a homophone here too.
Once we were down to the blues, I could see that they were all -ball words to wrap things up. Another fun game today.
Streak = 535
How did you get on this time? Here’s my grid:
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟦🟦🟦🟦
Want to know more about how everything fits together? Let’s explore today’s game in more depth in my NYT Connections Answers Explained column. You can check that out by visiting my author page.
Be sure to check my blog for hints and the answer for tomorrow’s game of Connections if you need them.
P.S. Death Cab for Cutie are one of those bands I’ve heard more about than I have their music, despite being a fan of frontman Ben Gibbard’s side project, The Postal Service. So I had to watch their recent appearance on NPR’s Tiny Desk. I really enjoyed this one. Gosh, does Gibbard’s voice still sound great:
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.