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Tom’s Guide
Tom’s Guide
Technology
Scott Younker

NYT Connections today hints and answers — Friday, August 2 (#418)

NYTimes Connections.

Looking for today's Connections answers? The Connections answers on August 2nd for puzzle #418 are a smidge more difficult than yesterday's answers, with the Connections Companion rating this puzzle's difficulty at 3.4 out of 5.

Every day, we update this article with Connections hints and tips to help you find all 4 of today's answers. And if the hints aren't enough, you'll find all 4 answers below, with the category titles and the correlating words. Plus, we're including a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #417, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.

Spoilers lie ahead for Connections #418. Only read on if you want to know today's Connections answers.  

Alternatively, visit our how to play NYT Connections guide for tips on how to solve the puzzle without our help.

Today's Connections answer — hints to help you solve it

Unlike our guide to today's Wordle answer, where we recommend the best Wordle start words as your strategy, solving Connections relies on identifying connecting categories among 16 words. Each category's difficulty level is represented by a color; yellow is the easiest grouping, and purple is the most challenging. Once you've made 4 mistakes in your guesses, the answers will be revealed, so hints can be helpful.

If you need hints to solve the groupings, then here are the themes of each, based on the order of difficulty:

  • 🟨 Yellow: Stretch, as one's patience
  • 🟩 Green: Things a DJ does
  • 🟦 Blue: Adjective used in grammar
  • 🟪 Purple: What "green" might mean

These hints should get you at least some of the way towards finding today's Connections answers. If not, then you can read on for bigger clues; or, if you just want to know the answer, then scroll down further.

Here's a larger hint: Simply, you need to remember grammar terms without straining yourself. Don't think of radio DJs but rather the man behind the boards at the club, and then look for some greenwashing.

Today's Connections answers

So, what are today's Connections answers for game #418?

Drumroll, please...

  • 🟨 Stretch, as one's patience: Strain, tax, test, try
  • 🟩 Things a DJ does: Mix, sample, scratch, spin
  • 🟦 Adjectives used in grammar: Direct, irregular, possessive, present
  • 🟪 What "green" might mean: Ecological, jealous, lush, nauseous

Today was a struggle for this one. Let's get the easier ones out of the way.

I saw the green category first and had mix, sample, scratch and spin in a snap. This was a fun one.

I saw strain and tax while hunting for green, so finding test and try was the next priority. 

Early on, I was thinking of grammar rules, specifically, tenses. Fortunately, I knocked out the other two categories which made seeing direct, irregular, possessive and present in the blue category easier. I understand what they were going for here but I wish it had a different category name or relation to grammar.

The purple category makes sense but I couldn't find the fourth word. For me, lush does not mean green. I view the word as meaning a drunk, despite knowing phrases like a lush forest, but even then I don't think of the word "green". 

It was not a connection that my mind was willing to make. Fortunately, I solved purple last so it didn't become too much of a problem.

Yesterday's Connections answers

Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Connections answers for game #416, which had a difficulty rating of 3.1 out of 5, according to the Connections Companion.

Whenever I knock yellow out first, I try to solve it straight in order. Didn't happen today, but that's alright.

Everyone and everything is a brand that needs promotion these days so hype, market, pitch and sell came through easily.

I was already looking ahead to cast, chuck, fling and hurl while finishing up yellow, so green quickly fell after that.

I do worry what it says about myself to myself that I saw types of socks before I saw bookstore genres. Still, upon seeing ankle and crew I immediately thought "socks" and found sweat and tube soon after.

Bookstore sections became the nice little capper with fiction, humor, romance and travel. 

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