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TechRadar
Marc McLaren

NYT Connections today — hints and answers for Thursday, August 22 (game #438)

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 #438) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

  • EGG
  • STORY
  • SUN
  • SCREEN
  • MOON
  • REEL
  • STREAK
  • POST
  • GLOBE
  • DECK
  • SPEAKER
  • FLOOR
  • TOILET PAPER
  • MIRROR
  • LEVEL
  • PROJECTOR

NYT Connections today (game #438) - hint #1 - group hints

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

  • Yellow: Cinema stars
  • Green: Vertically ascending areas of a building
  • Blue: Read all about it
  • Purple: Words for a mischievous trick

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 #438) - hint #2 - group answers

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

  • YELLOW: CLASSIC MOVIE THEATER EQUIPMENT
  • GREEN: TIER
  • BLUE: NEWSPAPER NAMES
  • PURPLE: PRANK VERBS

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

NYT Connections today (game #438) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #438, are…

  • YELLOW: CLASSIC MOVIE THEATER EQUIPMENT PROJECTOR, REEL, SCREEN, SPEAKER
  • GREEN: TIER DECK, FLOOR, LEVEL, STORY
  • BLUE: NEWSPAPER NAMES GLOBE, MIRROR, POST, SUN
  • PURPLE: PRANK VERBS EGG, MOON, STREAK, TOILET PAPER

  • My rating: Moderate
  • My score: 1 hint

I don't want to spend every day complaining about the difference between US English and UK English, but it would be nice if the NYT could either avoid ambiguity on that front or come up with a tech fix for it. In today's Connections, for instance, there's the word STORY. But it's not in there as a tale, it's in there as what we in the UK would call a STOREY with an E. So the connection between it and LEVEL, DECK and FLOOR didn't occur to me until late on after I'd spent ages trying to work out what the fourth word for that green group could be.

Right, rant over – other than that issue, today's game is not too bad, although the prank verbs purple group is not one I'd have got on my own. Then again, it is about 40 years since I was young enough to play pranks of those kind (and I didn't anyway, because I was a shy nerd).

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


Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Wednesday, 21 August, game #437)

  • YELLOW: COVER WITH A THICK LAYER CAKE, COAT, PLASTER, SMEAR
  • GREEN: THINGS THAT ARE INFLATED BALLOON, BASKETBALL, FLOATIE, TIRE
  • BLUE: KINDS OF CHARTS BAR, BUBBLE, LINE, PIE
  • PURPLE: CLASSIC COCKTAIL TYPES FIZZ, PUNCH, SLING, SOUR

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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