If you’re looking for the August 16 Connections hints and answers, we’ve got you covered right here:
Hey there, Connectors! I hope you had a wonderful weekend. I’m delighted to be back with you for another weekday run of this here column.
Let’s get things started as we always do in the Monday editions with a fun, upbeat song. I just want to help you get your week started on a positive note.
And what better way to do that than with the actual queen of pop, Carly Rae Jepsen? One of her new tracks, “Don’t Leave Me on the Dance Floor,” is a banger. Just like the rest of her music, really:
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 17 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…
- MACRO
- MEET
- DOLLY
- DOGIE
- ZOOM
- CATTLE
- FISHEYE
- SCRIPT
- WILLIE
- BIRDIE
- PATSY
- FUNCTION
- HUDDLE
- FORMULA
- JOHNNY
- TEAMS
Today’s NYT Connections Hints
The hints for today’s Connections categories are:
- 🟨 Yellow group — ways to catch up without getting together
- 🟩 Green group — in cells, but perhaps not behind bars
- 🟦 Blue group — hank, merle and garth would fit right in
- 🟪 Purple group — similar to ratemeter, tetrahedron and pignorate
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 — TEAMS
- 🟩 Green group — SCRIPT
- 🟦 Blue group — PATSY
- 🟪 Purple group — CATTLE
Today’s NYT Connections Categories
Today’s Connections groups are…
- 🟨 Yellow group — video call platforms
- 🟩 Green group — spreadsheet formulas
- 🟦 Blue group — first names of country music legends
- 🟪 Purple group — starting with pets
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 — video call platforms (HUDDLE, MEET, TEAMS, ZOOM)
- 🟩 Green group — spreadsheet formulas (FORMULA, FUNCTION, MACRO, SCRIPT)
- 🟦 Blue group — first names of country music legends (DOLLY, JOHNNY, PATSY, WILLIE)
- 🟪 Purple group — starting with pets (BIRDIE, CATTLE, DOGIE, FISHEYE)
The “starting with animals” words seemed a little too obvious, so while I’m pretty sure we’ve had a group of video conferencing calls/services in the past, I had to guess those first. That got me the yellows.
The greens were up next, thanks in large parts to MACRO and FORMULA. At that point, I figured there was no harm in guessing the words that started with animals (they refer to bird, cat, dog and fish). Jeez, those were the purples today?
From there, it was a cinch to figure out the blues (DOLLY Parton, JOHNNY Cash, PATSY Cline and WILLIE Nelson). This was the easiest game I can remember in quite some time.
Streak = 533.
How did you get on this time? Here’s my grid:
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟦🟦🟦🟦
Be sure to check my blog for hints and the answer for tomorrow’s game of Connections if you need them.
P.S. While Whitney Houston’s version of “I Will Always Love You” is perhaps more famous among modern audiences, I’ll always prefer Dolly Parton’s heart-aching original:
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.