June 14Th New York Times Insights & Answers: Connect the Dots (Puzzle #369)

Quick Links

• What Is Connections?
• Hints for Today’s Connections Groups
• Today’s NYT Connections Answers
• How Did We Solve This Connections Game?
• How Do You Guess Connections Groups?

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.

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Hints for Today’s Connections Groups

Here are a few hints for the 369th Connections game to get you started:

• Yellow: A task you might be given by a teacher.
• Green: These words are connected by a color.
• Blue: When you need to spell something out.
• Purple: Connected by a number.

If you still need help, the actual group names are:

• Yellow: Writing Assignments.
• Green: Things That Are Pink
• Blue: NATO Phonetic Alphabet
• Purple: Associated with #2

Today’s NYT Connections Answers

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Writing Assignment (Yellow):

Article, Essay, Paper, Report

Things That Are Pink (Green):

Bubble gum, Carnation, Eraser, Flamingo

NATO Phonetic Alphabet (Blue):

Foxtrot, Hotel, Victor, Yankee

Associated with #2 (Purple):

Deputy, Dereck Jeter, Pencil, Silver Medal

How Did We Solve This Connections Game?

June 14th didn’t have any super weird twists.

The first word I looked at was foxtrot. It isn’t a common term, but is mostly commonly heard as part of the alphabet used by NATO. With that in mind, hotel, victor, and yankee were easy to tack on. Blue was “NATO Phonetic Alphabet.”

Article, essay, paper, and report are all things you write, so they seemed likely to fit together. The Yellow group was “Writing Assignments.”

I initially struggled looking at the remaining words until I visualized bubblegum and an eraser. They’re both pink! That connection—color—made it easy to pick out carnation and flamingo as the final words in the Green group.

That left deputy, Derek Jeter, pencil, and silver medal. I really had no idea what the link was here. Pencils and Derek Jeter? Deputies winning awards? As it turned out, Purple was “Associated with #2.” Suddenly I’m thrown back to my school days, when we were adamantly warned by teachers that using a non-#2 pencil would result in my test not being graded.

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.

1. Look for similar parts of speech. Are some words verbs and others nouns? Are some adjectives? Try mentally grouping them based on those categories and see if any other patterns jump out at you.
2. Are the words synonyms? Sometimes categories will just be synonyms for a phrase, or very close to synonyms. Don’t rely too closely on this, though. Occasionally, Connections will deliberately throw in words that are sometimes synonyms to mislead you.
3. Try saying the words. Sometimes, saying the words helps. One puzzle we saw included the words go, rate, faster, clip, pace, speed, move, commute, and hurry—all of which are obviously related to the idea of motion. However, when you say them, it becomes a little more obvious that only four (go, move, hurry, faster) are things you’d actually say to prompt someone to get moving.
4. Expect the red herring . Connections usually has words that could be plausibly, yet incorrectly, grouped together. Take the words Bud, Corona, and Light, as an example. You might instinctively see those three words together and assume they’re lumped together in a category related to beer—but they weren’t.
5. Look for distinct words. If a word on your board doesn’t have multiple meanings or can really only be used in one context, try using that word as the basis for a category.
6. Shuffle the board. Sometimes, moving words around will help you look at them in new ways.

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.