Looking for today's Connections answers? The Connections answers on June 21 for puzzle #376 is slightly easier than yesterday's puzzle, with the Connections Companion rating this puzzle's difficulty at 3 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, #375, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.
Spoilers lie ahead for Connections #376. 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: Bits of hardware
- 🟩 Green: Fishing gear
- 🟦 Blue: Hair salon fixtures
- 🟪 Purple: Lightning ____
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: Today's puzzle is all about having fun at the park while cheering for the little guy and giving him the assent to move forward. After that, it's all about the booty.
Today's Connections answers
So, what are today's Connections answers for game #376?
Drumroll, please...
- 🟨 Amusement park rides: Ferris wheel, merry-go-round, roller coaster, tilt-a-whirl
- 🟩 Approval: Clearance, go-ahead, green light, thumbs-up
- 🟦 Type of come-from-behind stories: Cinderella, David-and-goliath, rags-to-riches, underdog
- 🟪 Beginning with synonyms for rear end: Bumper-to-bumper, buttermilk, Rumpelstiltskin, tailgate
Friday got weird with category titles that felt like full sentences.
I'll admit, after knocking down amusement park rides immediately, the trick of including Rumpelstiltskin got me. I saw that and Cinderella and combo'd it with David-and-Goliath while looking for a fairy tale connection. I took a strike on that one just to see when there wasn't anything obvious.
That said, underdog and rags-to-riches leapt out and I saw the come-from-behind stories soon after that.
The shortest category title was fairly simple from there. Everything was giving the go-ahead.
The purple category was a purple one. I don't think I ever would have naturally made that connection if it wasn't the last four available words. I get it, Tail, Rump, Butt, Bump? Bump is not one I got, I don't think I've ever heard the gluteus maximus described as a bump unless someone was flatter than a piece of cardboard. You learn a new slang every day.
Yesterday's Connections answers
Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Connections answers for game #376, which had a difficulty rating of 3.5 out of 5, according to the Connections Companion.
After yesterday's breezy finish, Thursday comes along and makes you eat a bit of humble pie, or at least I did.
Right away, I had the yellow category with nail, screw, and nut. My first guess was a strike as I had bolt instead of washer. This was a theme for the day.
The green category stood out immediately after. Fly, hook, and sinker were quickly spotted. Again, swapped in rod instead of line. Strike two of four. I may have tried to keep rod around longer than I should have, but usually after a strike if something to swap doesn't immediately jump out I look for another category.
I was not thinking about hair salons when I got dryer, mirror and sink. The only reason I tried chair was because it didn't fit with the other categories I was looking at.
Getting blue made purple a quick fill and I was not surprised at the answer of bolt, bug, rod, and strike. Though I was looking for golf related matches, I'm not sure why that connection is what I wanted. That said, I was very annoyed at rod. I remain annoyed at rod.
