If you’re looking for the answer to the Connections question for Thursday, August 15, 2024, read on – I’ll give you some hints, tips and strategies, and finally the solutions for all four categories. Along the way, I’ll explain the meaning of the more difficult words and we’ll learn how it all fits together. Warning, there are spoilers for NYT Connections No. 431 from August 15th below! Read on if you want some clues (and then the answer) about today’s Connections game.
If you want to easily access our connections tips every day, Bookmark this page. You can also find our previous clues there if you want to know what you missed in a previous puzzle.
Below I’ll give you some indirect clues about today’s Connections answers. And further down the page I’ll reveal the topics and answers. Scroll slowly and take only the clues you need!
Photo credit: Connections/NYT
Clues to the topics in today’s Connections Puzzle
Here are some spoiler-free clues about the groups in today’s Connections:
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Yellow category – A large room or a lot to cover.
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Green category – This is how you would describe your spouse.
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Blue category – Open a cold beer from this one.
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Purple Category – A fill-in-the-blank question with one word that relates to the exchange of money for a product or service.
WARNING: Spoilers for today’s connections puzzle follow!
We’ll reveal some of the answers in a moment. Scroll slowly if you don’t want to give away everything. (The full solution is a little further down.)
A note on the tricky parts
CHECK and MATT do not go together.
Note the spelling of “COMPLEMENT.” This means something that balances out something else, as in “Your eyes complement the color of your dress.” (This statement is a compliment, though!)
What categories are there in today’s connections?
DOUBLE CAUTION: THE SOLUTION CAN BE FOUND BELOW
Want to know the answers to today’s Connections puzzle? I’ll reveal them all below.
What are the yellow words in today’s connections?
The yellow grouping is considered the simplest. The topic of today’s yellow group is WIDTH and the words are: EXTENT, AREA, RANGE, SCOPE.
What do the green words in today’s connections mean?
The green grouping is probably the second easiest. The theme for today’s green category is “OTHER HALF” and the words are: “COMPLEMENT”, “MATCH”, “MATE”, “PARTNER”.
What do the blue words mean in today’s connections?
The blue grouping is the second most difficult. The theme for today’s blue category is BEERS, FAMILIARLY and the words are: BUD, NATTY, SIERRA, STELLA.
What are the purple words in today’s connections?
The purple grouping is considered the most difficult. The topic for today’s purple category is WORDS AFTER “NUMBERS” and the words are: CHECK, DIRT, PAL, PHONE.
How I solved today’s connections
NATTY strikes me as a strange word – I immediately associate it with beer, which then makes me think of STELLA, BUD and SIERRA, which are also the first words in beer brands. (STELLA Artois, BUDweiser, SIERRA Nevada.) 🟦
RANGE and EXTENT are now next to each other, so I can quickly recognize them as synonyms. REACH and SCOPE also fit in. 🟨
COMPLEMENT, MATE, PAL and PARTNER are all synonyms for a companion. Oops, “one gone”. Ah, now I see MATCH, which is probably what belongs there somewhere. I was too hasty!
OK, let’s see what connects CHECK, PHONE and DIRT, then I can see which of the other words do not belong in the category of “accompaniment”.
Paper check, phone call, dirt cheap, hmm. Dirt can form a cloud, and phones use “the cloud” to function. That doesn’t seem right, though. Oh, it’s called “pay!” PayCHECK, payPHONE, pay DIRT (a phrase referring to a “profitable venture”), and… Ah, PayPal, the digital payment service. 🟪
This means that COMPLEMENT, MATE, MATCH and PARTNER fit together. 🟩
Connections Puzzle #431 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟪🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟩🟩🟩🟩
How to play Connections
I have a full How to play Connectionsbut here is a refresher of the rules:
First, find the Connections game on either the New York Times website or their Games app (formerly the Crossword app). You’ll see a game board with 16 tiles, each with a word or phrase. Your job is to select a group of four tiles that have something in common. Often these are the same type of thing (for example: RAIN, SNOW MUD, HAIL and SNOW are all types of wet weather), but sometimes there are word games (for example: BUCKET, GUEST, TOP TEN and WISH are all types of Lists: bucket list, guest list, etc.).
Select four items and click the submit button. If you guessed correctly, the category and color will be revealed. (Yellow is easiest, followed by green, then blue, then purple.) If your guess was wrong, you’ll have the option to try again.
You win if you identify all four groups correctly, but if you make four mistakes before you finish, the game is over and the answers are revealed.
How to gain connections
The most important thing to know about winning Connections is that the groupings are tricky. Expect overlapping groups. For example, one puzzle appeared to contain six breakfast foods: BACON, EGG, PANCAKE, OMELET, WAFFLE, and CEREAL. But BACON turned out to be part of a group of painters along with CLOSE, MUNCH, and WHISTLER, and EGG was in a group of things that come by the dozen (along with JUROR, ROSE, and MONTH). So don’t click submit until you’ve confirmed that your group of four includes only these four things.
If you get stuck, you can also look at the words that NO Connection to the others. If the only thing that comes to mind when you think of WHISTLER is the painting nicknamed “Whistler’s Mother,” you may be on the right track. Once I had that problem solved, I ended up Googling whether there was a painter named Close, because Close didn’t fit any of the obvious themes either.
Of course, another way to win if you get stuck is to read a few helpful hints – that’s why we share these clues every day. Check back tomorrow to read the next puzzle!
