It's the final Connections puzzle of the working week, and it's another fairly difficult one. What a surprise, eh? Read on for some hints.
What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Wordle hints and answers, Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.
NYT Connections today (game #411) - today's words
Today's NYT Connections words are…
- LIAR
- CON
- BACK
- DOWN
- SUPPORT
- SYMBOL
- MINUS
- LOOT
- CHAMPION
- STRIKE
- DING
- RIGHT
- BASE
- UP
- ENDORSE
- LEFT
NYT Connections today (game #411) - hint #1 - group hints
What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?
- Yellow: Which way?
- Green: You got this
- Blue: Bad thing
- Purple: Sounds like a sound maker
Need more clues?
We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…
NYT Connections today (game #411) - hint #2 - group answers
What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: BASIC DIRECTIONS
- GREEN: ADVOCATE FOR
- BLUE: DRAWBACK
- PURPLE: INSTRUMENT HOMOPHONES
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Connections today (game #411) - the answers
The answers to today's Connections, game #411, are…
- YELLOW: BASIC DIRECTIONS DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, UP
- GREEN: ADVOCATE FOR BACK, CHAMPION, ENDORSE, SUPPORT
- BLUE: DRAWBACK CON, DING, MINUS, STRIKE
- PURPLE: INSTRUMENT HOMOPHONES BASE, LIAR, LOOT, SYMBOL
- My rating: Hard
- My score: 3 mistakes
This Connections is a real mixed bag, with one very easy one and another that's fairly simple, but two really tough ones. Or at least that was my experience. I got the green and yellow ones easily enough, but simply couldn't make another group from the eight remaining answers and used up three of my four guesses trying to complete the game.
Eventually I realized that BASE, LIAR, LOOT and SYMBOL were all homophones for musical instruments – it was SYMBOL that gave it away – which meant I solved the blue 'drawback' group by default. With hindsight maybe it wasn't that difficult, but DING in particular just didn't occur to me as being aligned in any way with CON, MINUS and STRIKE…
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Thursday, 25 July, game #410)
- YELLOW: ANCIENT WRITING SURFACES CLAY, PAPYRUS, PARCHMENT, WAX
- GREEN: LEAD, AS A TV PROGRAM ANCHOR, HOST, MODERATE, PRESENT
- BLUE: NATURAL ABILITY FACULTY, FLAIR, INSTINCT, TALENT
- PURPLE: WRAPPED THINGS BURRITO, GIFT, MUMMY, SPRAIN
What is NYT Connections?
NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.
On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.
It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.
It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
