Looking for today’s Connections answers? The August 16 Connections answers for puzzle #432 are barely a bit harder than yesterday’s answers. The Connections Companion rates this puzzle’s difficulty at 3.4 out of 5.
Every day we update this article with Connections clues and tips to help you find all 4 answers from today. And if the clues aren’t enough, you can find all 4 answers below with the category titles and the corresponding words. We also include a reflection on yesterday’s puzzle #431 in case you’re reading this in a different time zone.
Spoilers for Connections #432 follow. Read on only if you want to know today’s Connections answers.
Alternatively, you can visit our NYT Connections game guide for tips on how to solve the puzzle without our help.
Today’s Connections Answer – Tips for Solving
Unlike our guide to today’s Wordle answer where we recommend the best Wordle seed words as a strategy, solving Connections relies on identifying categories of connections among 16 words. The difficulty level of each category is represented by a color; yellow is the easiest grouping and purple is the most challenging. Once you make 4 mistakes in your guesses, the answers are revealed, so hints can be helpful.
If you need hints on how to solve the groupings, you can find the topics of the individual groupings here, sorted by difficulty level:
- 🟨 Yellow: Oh well
- 🟩 Green: Abbreviations of US states
- 🟦 Blue: Types of boots
- 🟪 Purple: Things that go up and down
These clues should give you at least part of the answer to today’s Connections question. If not, you can read on for bigger clues. If you just want to know the answer, keep scrolling down.
Here is a bigger hint: Remember your zip codes while listening to Nancy Sinatra. It’s a fine puzzle with a few ups and downs.
Today’s Connections Answers
So what are today’s Connections answers for game #431?
Drum roll, please…
- 🟨 Uh: Average, adequate, ok, so-so
- 🟩 Abbreviations of US states: HELLO, MA, OR, PA
- 🟦 Types of boots: Ankle, cowboy, go-go, over-the-knee boots
- 🟪 Things that go up and down: Elevator, sun, tide, yo-yo
There have been difficulties with 3s over the past few days, and for the most part they haven’t felt any harder than the 2s of previous days. That said, today’s puzzle might keep you thinking as you work your way through the connections.
I spotted the yellow category early, but skipped it to pursue the others. So the first thing I did was get the state abbreviations. HI (Hawaii), MA (Massachusetts), OR (Oregon), and PA (Pennsylvania). OK might make you think of Oklahoma, but don’t fall for that little trap.
I again forwent yellow, saw ankle and thigh highs and assumed they were more sock joins we did last week. Luckily, Cowboy and Go-Go were easy to spot.
Knowing the yellow category, it was easy to get purple when I turned on elevator, sun, tide, and yo-yo for things that go up and down. It works, I guess, but I had a feeling, so?
Then we finished with “okay” and grabbed the ratings “average”, “mediocre”, “ok” and “so-so”.
This puzzle didn’t feel too hard, or much harder than the other puzzles this week. If anything, it felt “okay.”
Yesterday’s Connections answers
Are you reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Connections answers for game #431, which had a difficulty level of 3.2 out of 5 according to the Connections Companion.
I have to say that I got three strikes here, but I think that despite the much higher difficulty level, many will find it easier than they think.
I don’t know exactly what this says about me, but I found the blue category first and discovered Sierra, Bud and Natty (who I know more as Natty Ice) and then Stella.
I did my strikes here when I was trying to put together the green category. I got stuck on Pal.
If you’re having trouble, sometimes it’s best to stop the category you’re working on and try somewhere else. I did that and quickly found the yellow category.
That was scale, scope, reach and scope.
Next, the purple category fell as I ignored the green words that I knew were correct. The phrase “hit the jackpot” came to mind. From there, it was a breeze to find paycheck, PayPal, and payphone.
Finally I had green with complement, match, mate and partner.
