Good morning! Let’s play Connections, the NYT’s clever word game that requires you to sort answers into different categories. This can be tricky, so read on if you need clues.
What should you do when you’re done? Play some word games, of course. I also have daily articles with tips and answers for Wordle, Strands and Quordle if you need help with those too.
SPOILER ALERT: Information about today’s NYT Connections is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.
NYT Connections today (Game No. 452) – the words of the day
The words of NYT Connections today are…
- BASH
- BAG
- COLOR
- BAG
- RECEPTION
- FREAK OUT
- COUNTRY
- PAN
- CUT
- EXPLOSION
- COURTYARD
- SCORE
- GET IT
- HOOK
- TRIM
- ATTEMPT
NYT Connections Today (Game #452) – Clue #1 – Group Clues
What are some pointers for today’s NYT Connections groups?
- Yellow: What is done with hair
- Green: Verbal disapproval
- Blue: Acquire
- Purple: Gridiron Data
Need more advice?
Now we’re moving into the spoiler zone, but read on if you want to know the four topic answers for today’s NYT Connections puzzles…
NYT Connections Today (Game #452) – Clue #2 – Group Answers
What are the answers for today’s NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: HAIR SALON OFFERS
- GREEN: CRITICIZE
- BLUE: RECEIVED
- PURPLE: MEASURED IN FOOTBALL STATISTICS
That’s right, the answers are below, SO DON’T SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Connections today (Game No. 452) – the answers
The answers to today’s Connections game #452 are…
- YELLOW: HAIR SALON OFFERS Blow-drying, coloring, cutting, trimming
- GREEN: CRITICIZE HIT, BLOW, SWING, HIT
- BLUE: RECEIVED ONE POCKET, LANDING, POINTS, CATCH
- PURPLE: MEASURED IN FOOTBALL STATISTICS ATTEMPT, RECEPTION, SACK, YARD
- My rating: Moderate
- My result: Fail
Do you know how you go through the five stages of grief? I experience something similar with Connections. First, Enjoyment to find a new game every day, then satisfaction when I dealt with it, mostly won, sometimes lost. Then followed confusion when I started losing regularly, then Self-hatred when I decided that I was just too stupid to win every day. And now? Now I have achieved boredom: It’s just not fun to play every day.
Connections seems almost unbalanced. Some days are impossibly hard, others are incredibly easy. Within a game, a “blue” group – supposedly the second hardest – can be much easier to solve than an “easy” yellow one. There are words that you can sometimes expect no one to know – or at least not know that they can be used in a certain context. And there’s a huge geographic bias that puts anyone outside the US at a massive disadvantage. And that last factor in particular costs me a guess or two almost every day.
It’s just not nearly as fun as Wordle or even Strands. Playing it happens to be stressful and regularly unsatisfying.
Today there is a group about football (yawn, I guess we get baseball tomorrow, right?) and one about hair salons, which includes the word BLOWOUT, a term I’ve never heard used in this context. I solved one group (the blue “get”) but couldn’t make anything of the remaining 12 words and basically gave up and guessed randomly until I lost.
Maybe I should have solved one of the other puzzles; maybe I should have done more research or spent more time on it. But today at least I didn’t look at the answers and think, “Oh, you idiot Marc, you should have solved that.” Instead, I just shrugged and went on with my day – which is probably not the attitude the NYT is looking for here.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s NYT Connections Answers (Wednesday, September 4, Game #451)
- YELLOW: VERY SMALL AMOUNT NOTE, SIGN, TOUCH, TRACK
- GREEN: PUPPY PURCHASE Bed, bowl, collar, crate
- BLUE: HELP HOST A PARTY Catering, hosting, planning, organisation
- PURPLE: SYMBOLS ON A KEYBOARD Bracket, caret, diamond, star
What is NYT Connections?
NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games from the New York Times. You have to find groups of four items that have something in common, and each group has a different level of difficulty: green is easy, yellow is a bit harder, blue is often quite difficult, and purple is usually very difficult.
The upside is that you don’t technically have to solve the final puzzle, as you can solve it by process of elimination. Plus, you’re allowed to make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little wiggle room.
It is a bit more complicated than Wordle, however, and has many ways to trick you. For example, watch out for homophones and other wordplay that could obscure the answers.
It can be played for free on desktop or mobile via the NYT Games site.
