If you’re looking for the August 20 Connections hints and answers, we’ve got you covered right here:
Hey there, Connectors! Let’s bring what was hopefully a great week for you to a close by keeping your Connections streak going into the weekend.
It’s incredible how far stop-motion animation has come. I find it to be a remarkable medium for storytelling, and I can’t fathom the level of patience and persistence it must take to animate in this fashion. This week, a trailer arrived for the next film from Laika, the makers of Coraline and Kubo and the Two Strings. Wildwood looks absolutely gorgeous:
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 Friday, August 21 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 green, blue 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…
- WIMPY
- WHILE
- SLEEP
- GENERATION
- LIFETIME
- ACTION
- OXYGEN
- COMEBACK
- SHOWTIME
- KARATE
- SUNDANCE
- PLACES
- WATER
- BLUE MOON
- CURTAIN UP
- NUTRITION
Today’s NYT Connections Hints
The hints for today’s Connections categories are:
- 🟨 Yellow group — like “you” for Harry Nilsson and Mariah Carey
- 🟩 Green group — it’s time to play the music, it’s time to light the lights
- 🟦 Blue group — some are new on the block, others will become one of the goats (just not quite like Muhammad Ali)
- 🟪 Purple group — like the best way to have a steak
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 — SLEEP
- 🟩 Green group — PLACES
- 🟦 Blue group — SUNDANCE
- 🟪 Purple group — GENERATION
Today’s NYT Connections Categories
Today’s Connections groups are…
- 🟨 Yellow group — things most animals need
- 🟩 Green group — calls to begin a performance
- 🟦 Blue group — ____ kid
- 🟪 Purple group — once in a _____
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 — things most animals need (NUTRITION, OXYGEN, SLEEP, WATER)
- 🟩 Green group — calls to begin a performance (ACTION, CURTAIN UP, PLACES, SHOWTIME)
- 🟦 Blue group — ____ kid (COMEBACK, KARATE, SUNDANCE, WIMPY)
- 🟪 Purple group — once in a _____ (BLUE MOON, GENERATION, LIFETIME, WHILE)
I almost fell for the red herring of cable networks (OXYGEN, SHOWTIME, SUNDANCE, LIFETIME), but I realized that the life essentials made more sense.
I got the yellows and then I zipped through the rest to get a regular rainbow.
With the time I had left over, I refined the hints, which I think are my favorite batch I’ve come up with in a while. I try to make them as fun as I can for you all! However, I spent so long on them that I ran out of time to put together an Answers Explained piece today. Oops.
Streak = 537
How did you get on this time? Here’s my grid:
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟪🟪🟪🟪
That wraps things up for my current stint of Connections coverage here. I’ll be back with you for more shenanigans on Monday. In the meantime, you can read my weekend editions of this column and more of my writing at my newsletter, Pastimes.
P.S. I have a whole list of mashups I’ve been meaning to recommend, so I’m going to start doing that right now. I really enjoy this blend of the Beastie Boys’ “Intergalactic” and “Ghostbusters” by Ray Parker Jr from William Maranci. It’s so much fun and it works really well:
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.