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Connections is a game from the New York Times that challenges you to find the association between words. It sounds easy, but it isn’t—Connections categories can be almost anything, and they’re usually quite specific. If you need a hand getting the answers, we’ve got you covered.
What Is Connections?
Connections is a game from the New York Times. The objective is simple: sort 16 words into groups of 4. Each group of words will be connected by some common idea or theme. That common element could be anything. We have seen everything from games that rely on the number of letters in the words to categories that require you to spot an extra letter at the end of the word. Sometimes they’re references to economics, other times they reference fairy tales. There is no telling what sort of association there will be between words.
Once you’re confident you understand the connection, select 4 words, then hit “Submit.” You have only four attempts in total, so don’t be too guess-happy.
Hints for Today’s Connections Groups
Here are a few hints for the 403rd Connections game to get you started:
Fire, Heart, Skull, Sparkles
How Did We Solve This Connections Game?
July 18th was very straight forward. There weren’t any groups that required any major logical jumps.
The first group I spotted was Green, “Boxing Unit.” Bout, contest, match, and round are all just words that describe rounds in some kind of contest. I didn’t put it together with boxing, but it wasn’t important.
Court, plaza, square, and yard are all large open spaces you might find in or around buildings. Heart and court tempted me for a second, though, since they could both be related to romance somehow. The Yellow group was “Open Space.”
Dazzle, flash, pomp, and ritz are all words I usually associate with decoration, wealth, and fanciness—not necessarily in a positive way, either. However, they don’t really match with any other remaining words besides maybe sparkles. I did try a guess that included sparkles, but it didn’t work.
Blue was “Glitziness.”
That left fire, heart, skull and sparkles. I tried all the usual tricks for Purple to no avail, then by happy coincidence, I looked at Discord and noticed a message with a fire emoji reaction. Fire, heart, skull, and sparkles are all “Emojis,” which was the Purple group.
That felt almost deceptively literal for Purple.
How Do You Guess Connections Groups?
There is no quick, reliable way to approach Connections like there is with Wordle, since Connections isn’t algorithmic. However, there are a few things to keep in mind that can help.
If you didn’t solve this one, don’t feel too bad—there’s always tomorrow! And those words may align with a topic you’re interested in, giving you a leg up on the competition.
