Looking for today's Connections answers? The Connections answers on February 4 for puzzle #238 are trickier than yesterday, with the Connections Companion rating this puzzle's difficulty at 3.8 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, #237, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.
Spoilers lie ahead for Connections #238. 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: Morning brew
- 🟩 Green: Yawn
- 🟦 Blue: Some say it's the best medicine
- 🟪 Purple: Shaken, not stirred
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.
Alright then, here's a larger hint: When it comes to today's puzzle, consider some of our favourite beverages, maybe the type you groggily begin the day with, and then the type you might happily end it late into the night!
Today's Connections answers
So, what are today's Connections answers for game #238?
Drumroll, please...
- 🟨 Drinks with caffeine: Cocoa, coffee, mate, tea
- 🟩 Unexciting: Boring, dull, mundane, vanilla
- 🟦 Comedian's performance: Act, bit, routine, set
- 🟪 Martini specifications: Dirty, dry, twist, up
Given the early hours of the day that I find myself writing this, it should come as no surprise that I took little time to complete today's yellow category: drinks with caffeine.
Barely able to say my name before the day's first coffee kicks in, I soon combined my staple hot drink with winter faves Cocoa and Tea, and the South American drink that seems to be a hit among the world's leading soccer players, Mate.
Dull, Boring, and Mundane are all words that my ungrateful kids like to use when I'm enlightening them with my words of wisdom. I added Dry to the selection but found that I was one away. I had considered Vanilla as a potential hot drink above (Vanilla chai anyone?) but it seemed to fit the bill here instead. Sure enough, the green 'unexciting' category was complete.
I couldn't help but think of my kids again as I spotted Act and Up next to each other, and Twist too. But with no other synonyms for tantrums, I resorted to another line of thinking. It's common for fathers to think of themselves as comedians as well as wise sages, and sure enough Act, Bit, Routine, and Set can all describe a performance on stage.
That left Dirty, Dry, Twist, and Up, which took a little longer to figure out. They are, of course, all ways in which one might ask for a Martini, though the lack of Shaken will disappoint Bond fans. Game complete with only one life lost, beginning with a coffee and ending with a Martini. Just how every good Sunday should be!
Yesterday's Connections answers
Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Connections answers for game #237, which had a difficulty rating of 2.6 out of 5, according to the Connections Companion.
The luck of the draw saw Pen and Ink thrust together in the top left corner of my grid today, and also Range and Rover in the bottom left. And yet, this being Connections, I was immediately wary of getting too excited about any potential themes on writing instruments or cars.
Instead, I saw Firm, Company, Agency, and figured I was onto something. Types of businesses? I added Coop (as in co-operative) only to find I was one away. I figured I best stick with capitalism and replaced Coop with Enterprise for a completed yellow category: commercial organization.
- 🟨 Commercial organization: Agency, company, enterprise, firm
- 🟩 Farm fixtures: Coop, pen, stable, sty
- 🟦 Classic dog names: Fluffy, rex, rover, spot
- 🟪 Colors minus their first letters: Ink, lack, old, range
From the city to the countryside next, as the aptly-colored green category followed when I figured Coop can also be used to house chickens, putting it alongside Stable, Sty, and, yep, Pen, as fixtures on a farm.
After a brief pause, a tactical shuffle came in handy as it pitched Rex and Rover together, bringing to mind more of our friends in the animal kingdom. Fluffy and Spot completed what sounded like an attendance sheet at a doggy daycare.
As is often the case, I was left with the four remaining words from the purple category, which this time were Ink, Lack, Old, and Range. It took a while, but eventually, a kaleidoscopic spark pervaded my monochrome thinking, and I realised they were all colors minus their first letters!
