Today’s Connections tip and answer on August 16 for 432

It’s time to take a break and think about how to solve the problem. Connections answer for today, August 16the last puzzle before the weekend begins!

If you’ve never played it, Connections requires you to sort a group of 16 words into four groups where all the words are well connected. This connection could be because they have a similar meaning, are part of a place name, are objects found in a kitchen, or really anything!

This may sound simple, but the connection groups each have a different level of difficulty – yellow being the easiest and purple being the most difficult. For this reason, training Today’s Connection Answer could be quite tricky. One group you might get right away, but another might be a mystery to you. Luckily, we’re here to help!

Originally developed during the New York Times games department’s annual game jam, Connections released its beta version in June 2023. Since then, it has become one of the NYTimes’ most popular games, surpassed only by Worlde. However, some connections have been made to the BBC’s Only Connect program…

Note on today’s Connections response

Instead of jumping straight to the answer, let’s start with some clues to today’s Connections puzzle:

• Yellow – If it’s nothing special.
• Green – Places in the United States.
• Blue – Different styles of the same footwear.
• Purple – Things that move in the same direction.
• Ok belongs to the yellow group, MA to green and Desert to blue.

Remember: yellow is the easiest to find, followed by green and blue. Purple is the hardest word group to connect.

Connecting words for August 16

Here are the words from today’s connection puzzle. See if the clues above help you make a connection before we look at today’s answer:

Connections response for August 16

And without further ado, here is today’s Connections answer:

• Oh well – Average, Mediocre, OK, So-so.
• Abbreviations of US states – Hello, MA, OR, PA.
• Types of boots – Cowboy, desert, go-go, overknee.
• Things that go up and down – Elevator, sun, tide, yo-yo.

Today’s puzzle wasn’t necessarily difficult because the topics were complicated or too specific, but because it covered topics I’m not personally familiar with. But I still got a few points. First, the yellow group. Mediocre and Average give us a good idea of ​​a group. When trying to sort the remaining words, I had to use trial and error, and we all know that doesn’t work well with compounds. I finally got the blue group before all my attempts were finished.

What should be played after Connections?

The obvious answer to that question is Wordle, but if you’ve already solved that today, the New York Times has other games. As for word-based games, the NYTimes has Mini Crossword, Spelling Bee, Letter Boxed, and Strands, which is still in beta. If you need a break from words, you can also try Tiles – a motif-matching game – or Sudoku.

Outside of the NYTimes, there’s Semantle, where you have to find the secret word by guessing its meaning. Spelling doesn’t count in Semantle, instead you have to pay attention to the numerical value of your guesses to find your way to the answer. However, if you’d rather stick with the Connections format, it’s worth checking out Puzzgrid. Here you’ll find hundreds of Connections-style puzzles. The trick is that you only have three minutes to solve them.

(You can also just watch Only Connect on BBC iPlayer…)

If you’re in the reading mood, we discussed why the NYTimes Mini Crossword is a reliable treat and interviewed Jonathan Knight, head of the NYTimes Games Department.

Good luck solving today’s connections!