NYT Daily Puzzle Insights & Solution - June 26 Edition, Challenge #381

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 381st Connections game to get you started:

• Yellow: Military hierarchy.
• Green: The other end of a USB cable or power cable.
• Blue: When there is interest in something.
• Purple: For when you want to sell something or solicit a service.

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

• Yellow: Army Ranks
• Green: Place to Plug Something In
• Blue: Consumer Desire, Collectively
• Purple: ____ Ad

Army Ranks (Yellow):

Captain, General, Major, Private

Place to Plug Something In (Green):

Jack, Outlet, Port, Socket

Consumer Desire, Collectively (Blue):

Appetite, Audience, Demand, Market

_____ Ad (Purple):

Attack, Personal, Pop-up, Want

How Did We Solve This Connections Game?

June 26th was an average game.

Skimming the words, the words captain, general, major, and private all just struck me as likely related, since they’re army ranks. The Yellow group was literally just named “Army Ranks.”

The next word I picked up was outlet. Outlet most commonly refers to the apparatus on the wall that you plug things into, so I went looking for other words that have things plugged into them. Port (like an ethernet or USB port), a jack (like a audio jack), and socket all fit that idea quite nicely, so I stuck them in a group together. They were Green, “Place to Plug Something In.”

Appetite, audience, demand, and market are all terms related to what consumers want. “There is a market for a tool like that” or “There isn’t enough demand to justify making a product like that” are examples of how you might see them used. In any case, the connection was pretty straight forward. The Blue was “Consumer Desire, Collectively.”

That left attack, personal, pop-up, and want in Purple. After considering it for a few minutes, I eventually realized these were types of advertisements on might see on the Internet. The purple group’s name was “____ Ad,” which seemed unusually direct for Purple.

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.