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 Monday:
Hey there, Connectors! I hope you’ve had a great start to your week.
Given the ridiculous rises in the prices of electronics, we ought to take better care of the gizmos we already have. I don’t really want to have to replace my PlayStation 5 or PC anytime soon. As such, I should probably give them a good clean to remove dust and such.
I’ve never done that before, though. I’ve only ever bought pre-built PCs rather than trying to assemble one myself. I’m a little scared to open up the devices just in case I accidentally make things worse. I feel like I’d rather pay a professional to come to my place and clean them for me. I don’t really trust myself to do it.
I guess what I’m trying to say is take good care of your things! It’s getting more and more expensive to replace and upgrade them!
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.
Play Puzzles & Games on Forbes
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.
Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Tuesday, July 28 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…
- CAPTAIN
- CLARKS
- OTTOMAN
- EMPIRE
- ANNAPOLIS
- BOBSLED
- CAMPER
- DIRECT
- EVEREST
- FUJI
- GALA
- HEAD
- CONVERSE
- LEAD
- HONEYCRISP
- CROCS
A Hint For Today’s Connections Groups
The hints for today’s Connections categories are:
- 🟨 Yellow group — take charge
- 🟩 Green group — crunch time (or maybe not)
- 🟦 Blue group — once you “see” it, you’ll put your best foot forward
- 🟪 Purple group — eh, we’ll take what’s left, either way’s fine
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 — HEAD
- 🟩 Green group — EMPIRE
- 🟦 Blue group — CONVERSE
- 🟪 Purple group — EVEREST
Today’s Connections Categories
Today’s Connections groups are…
- 🟨 Yellow group — command
- 🟩 Green group — how do you like them apples
- 🟦 Blue group — shoe brands starting with “C”
- 🟪 Purple group — starting with palindromic names
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 — command (CAPTAIN, DIRECT, HEAD, LEAD)
- 🟩 Green group — how do you like them apples (EMPIRE, FUJI, GALA, HONEYCRISP)
- 🟦 Blue group — shoe brands starting with “C” (CAMPER, CLARKS, CONVERSE, CROCS)
- 🟪 Purple group — starting with palindromic names (ANNAPOLIS, BOBSLED, EVEREST, OTTOMAN)
The apples were up first for me today, thanks to GALA and HONEYCRISP. I very much enjoyed the category title here.
I figured that CONVERSE and CROCS had to be shoe brands. I knew CLARKS had to be one as well. It took me a while to find the third option before I settled on CAMPER (I am not familiar with that brand). I think the Cs eventually clicked subconsciously.
From there, I saw ANNA(POLIS), BOB(SLED) and EVE(REST), which had to be a group. Again, I didn’t really get the palindromic nuance there, even when I found OTTO(MAN) to get the purples. that left the yellows, and those melded together easily enough to bring me to win number 513 on my current streak.
How did you get on this time? Here’s my grid:
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟪🟪🟪🟪
I guess there might have been a red herring of mountains? I spotted EVEREST, FUJI and (El) CAPITAN.
Be sure to check my blog for hints and the answer for tomorrow’s game of Connections if you need them.
P.S. I think this might be my first recommendation with it’s own spoiler. So, scroll slowly again maybe?
I can’t say I’m a big fan of his own music, but it’s always really fun to watch Jacob Collier build a song with an orchestra on the fly and to conduct them and the audience.
Check this out and then tell me how long it takes you to figure out what song he’s piecing together here. I got it at the first flute part. The way everything comes together is just swell:
Here’s that spoiler for what the song is:
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.