Looking for today's Connections answers? The Connections answers on July 5 for puzzle #390 is bringing the heat after yesterday's answers took a holiday, with the Connections Companion rating this puzzle's difficulty at 3.2 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, #389, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.
Spoilers lie ahead for Connections #390. 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: Yearn
- 🟩 Green: Magazines
- 🟦 Blue: Characters in Bond movies
- 🟪 Purple: Words that precede "pop" in music genres
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: Enjoy a movie and some music with this one as you set your heart on people and objects, after that perhaps a nice long read with Oprah on the cover, if you're feeling so inclined.
Today's Connections answers
So, what are today's Connections answers for game #390?
Drumroll, please...
- 🟨 Yearn: Desire, long, pine, yen
- 🟩 Magazines: Fortune, Mad, Nature, O
- 🟦 Characters in Bond Movies: Bond, M, Moneypenny, Q
- 🟪 Words that precede "pop" in music genres: Bubblegum, euro, K, power
To start, I hope those of you who celebrate the 4th of July had a relaxing day. I'm back on the clock but if you're not enjoy the long weekend.
Perhaps I'm sun-drunk from yesterday, but I legitimately thought the blue category was a trap when I saw the connection. Thus, I did it anyway. Fortunately, it worked and my enjoyment of James "Bond" saw me through M, Moneypenny and Q.
I did get hit with the money trap as I saw Euro and Yen and tried to force a names for money connection. Strike one. But after I got that out of the system, I saw desire, yen and pine as the crossword-ese clues they truly are. Long was an easy find soon after.
While I was snagging the yellow category I was already into purple and looking for Pop music. Purple went down pretty quickly with euro-pop, K-Pop and Power Pop soon after. Now I just want to get a Pandora mix of all of these.
The green category made me question how the designer decides which color goes with which category. Green is supposed to be the next hardest group after the ease that is supposedly yellow.
Despite having read or glanced at the covers of all of these magazines; Fortune, Mad, Nature, O, I'm not certain I would have ever made the connection unless it was the final category to fill out. I suppose these are all titles that people have heard about.
Sometimes a grouping eludes you and today's green selection was one such case.
Yesterday's Connections answers
Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Connections answers for game #389, which had a difficulty rating of 2.3 out of 5, according to the Connections Companion.
Despite being rated as easier than the last two days, I took three strikes before I'd even solved two categories. Perhaps I was already in the holiday in the mood.
Today, after this puzzle, I am spending time with family and some friends enjoying good food and good company. A relaxing way to celebrate a holiday that's taken a turn after recent Supreme Court shenanigans and a debate between two men who shouldn't be our only options for leadership.
For those who celebrate, Happy 4th. I hope it's a good day for you. Stay safe with the fireworks. For those who don't, Happy Thursday, hey, we're one day away from the weekend.
Moving on.
I don't know about your grid but the four yellow category words were lined up in a straight diagonal from the upper left down to the lower right for me. I immediately saw attraction, chemistry, fireworks and sparks because of this. I understand some people shuffle the grid before they even start looking. That might not be the strategy today.
I got the categories in order but I was stuck on the blue category for three straight strikes. I had cycle, revolution, and turn right away. I could not see lap for the life of me. I literally tried cookies and bar thinking of circular things. Some days the connections are not to be had. I did finally see lap though after getting the green category.
After three strikes, I backed off for a moment. Magic eyed the puzzle and saw data and cache and realized what the puzzle wanted. Cookies and history immediately made sense after that.
Then the blue category fell.
Purple category was a cute fill, but I'll be honest I was avoiding Liberty bell because I thought the trap today was latching on to 4th of July related things. You got me Wyna Liu, you got me.
See y'all tomorrow.
