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TechRadar
Marc McLaren

NYT Connections today — hints and answers for Sunday, August 18 (game #434)

NYT Connections homescreen on a phone, on a purple background.

Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need clues.

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 #434) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

  • NERD
  • GRUMP
  • SNOOZE
  • WHAT IF
  • SAY
  • DO
  • DOPE
  • RUNT
  • SLEEP
  • KISS
  • SUPPOSE
  • ALARM
  • HOUR
  • PERHAPS
  • TIME SET
  • WHOPPER

NYT Connections today (game #434) - hint #1 - group hints

What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?

  • Yellow: Wake up call
  • Green: This might happen
  • Blue: Sweet treats
  • Purple: Seve Dwarf

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 #434) - hint #2 - group answers

What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?

  • YELLOW: ALARM CLOCK BUTTONS
  • GREEN: “HERE’S A THOUGHT ...”
  • BLUE: CANDY PIECES
  • PURPLE: SEVEN DWARFS MINUS LAST LETTER

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Connections today (game #434) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #434, are…

  • YELLOW: ALARM CLOCK BUTTONS ALARM, HOUR, SNOOZE, TIME SET
  • GREEN: “HERE’S A THOUGHT ...” PERHAPS, SAY, SUPPOSE, WHAT IF
  • BLUE: CANDY PIECES KISS, NERD, RUNT, WHOPPER
  • PURPLE: SEVEN DWARFS MINUS LAST LETTER DO, DOPE, GRUMP, SLEEP

  • My rating: Hard
  • My score: Fail

It's been ages since I've failed to solve a Connections puzzle, but that's what happened to me today – and I suspect it may happen to others, too. Although that said, the blue group, CANDY PIECES, may be much easier to solve if you're in the US. I'm in the UK, and have never heard of WHOPPER or RUNT in that context. I have heard of NERDs and KISSes, but neither are particularly common here, and that connection never occurred to me.

As for purple, the SEVEN DWARFS MINUS LAST LETTER, I can only applaud the NYT for a clever puzzle that I could have solved but that was simply too smart for me.

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.


Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Saturday, 17 August, game #433)

  • YELLOW: SPOKEN COMMUNICATION DIALECT, LANGUAGE, SPEECH, TONGUE
  • GREEN: CANOODLE FRENCH, KISS, MAKE OUT, NECK
  • BLUE: FIRST AID KIT ITEMS BANDAGE, DRESSING, SCISSORS, TAPE
  • PURPLE: HOUSE STYLES COTTAGE, CRAFTSMAN, PRAIRIE, RANCH

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.

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