Each day’s game of NYT Connections goes live at midnight local time. Before today’s NYT Connections hints, here’s what you missed on Thursday:
Hey there, Connectors! The weekend is almost upon us. Let’s make sure our Connections streaks keep going until then.
I was deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Glen Hansard this week. He was an incredible musician and has such a large body of fantastic work. I was fortunate enough to meet him a couple of times and even tag along with The Swell Season for drinks on one occasion. He was a warm, lovely person who really brought folks together. Quite literally, since he introduced my then-partner and I to a couple of people who became our friends.
I’ll miss him. And I’ll be listening to his music for a very long time to come.
Before we start, I want to highlight the rad community we have on Discord, where we chat about Connections, the rest of the NYT games and all kinds of other stuff. It’s a lovely group of folks. You’re more than welcome to join us.
Also, my weekend editions of this column are available over on my newsletter, Pastimes. If you enjoy the intros and recommendations in my Connections columns, I occasionally publish longer pieces along similar lines there as well. I think you’d dig them.
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Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Friday, July 31 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…
- MOLD
- SPEAR
- DAPPLE
- PRINCESS
- MUSHROOM
- JOYSTICK
- SLIME
- FUNGUS
- CHEERIOS
- DINOSAUR
- FASHION
- MODEL
- GLEEK
- SHAPE
- PLUMBER
- JDATE
A Hint For Today’s Connections Groups
The hints for today’s Connections categories are:
- 🟨 Yellow group — form or build
- 🟩 Green group — one might help the rest grow up or get a life in a particular World
- 🟦 Blue group — extra juicy
- 🟪 Purple group — [YouTube link]
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 — MODEL
- 🟩 Green group — DINOSAUR
- 🟦 Blue group — SLIME
- 🟪 Purple group — JOYSTICK
Today’s Connections Categories
Today’s Connections groups are…
- 🟨 Yellow group — construct
- 🟩 Green group — Super Mario figures
- 🟦 Blue group — fruits plus starting letter
- 🟪 Purple group — starting with merriments
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 — construct (FASHION, MODEL, MOLD, SHAPE)
- 🟩 Green group — Super Mario figures (DINOSAUR, MUSHROOM, PLUMBER, PRINCESS)
- 🟦 Blue group — fruits plus starting letter (DAPPLE, JDATE, SLIME, SPEAR)
- 🟪 Purple group — starting with merriments (CHEERIOS, FUNGUS, GLEEK, JOYSTICK)
My first idea was that MOLD, MUSHROOM, SLIME and FUNGUS fit together, but I realized that having MUSHROOM and FUNGUS in the same group like that didn’t quite make sense. As soon as I saw DINOSAUR, I had to go for the Mario-related words. That got me the greens.
CHEERIOS didn’t seem to line up with anything else. After I looked at the beginning of the word as well as GLEEK directly below it, the purples jumped out. (The green hint was a little out there, so I figured I’d balance that out with the purple clue. Plus, it’s a great song.)
From there, the yellows melded together in my brain, but of course I had to submit the blues first. JDATE helped make that category clear. The yellows then brought me to win number 516 in a row.
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. Of course, I have to go with a Glen Hansard song today. The first time I ever flew to another country for a show, it was to see The Swell Season in Paris.
They opened the show with Hansard playing the wonderful “Say It To Me Now” solo, without a microphone or guitar amplification. His powerful voice, honed through decades of busking, spread through every nook of a room filled with 1,700 people. Here’s a video (not one I took) of that performance:
And here’s Hansard (well, his character) performing that song in the brilliant film, Once:
Rest in peace, Glen.
Call someone you love today, folks. I hope you have a great weekend.
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.
