Looking for today's Connections answers? The Connections answers on July 4 for puzzle #389 take a slight dip in difficulty from yesterday's answers, with the Connections Companion rating this puzzle's difficulty at 2.3 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, #388, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.
Spoilers lie ahead for Connections #389. 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: Romantic rapport
- 🟩 Green: Things stored by a web browser
- 🟦 Blue: Single rotation
- 🟪 Purple: Words before "bell"
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: Don't let the holiday and its past trap you into a strike. Find some love, consider if you're playing on a computer, and maybe take a spin before getting rung to close it out.
Today's Connections answers
So, what are today's Connections answers for game #389?
Drumroll, please...
- 🟨 Romantic rapport: Attraction, chemistry, fireworks, sparks
- 🟩 Things stored by a web browser: Cache, cookies, data, history
- 🟦 Single rotation: Cycle, lap, revolution, turn
- 🟪 Words before "bell": Bar, dinner, liberty, tinker
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.
Yesterday's Connections answers
Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Connections answers for game #388, which had a difficulty rating of 2.8 out of 5, according to the Connections Companion.
I shouldn't have fallen for the two traps that were present in today's puzzle but I did.
Perhaps baseball is on the mind as I watch my Arizona Diamondbacks continue to just exist in the NL West. But I latched on to curveball and spitball real quick. It led nowhere, just like Arizona's season (no way, they make a World Series run again, right?).
Anyway, once I got over that, I saw brainstorm, ideate and spitball. It took a moment to see workshop but that got the yellow category done.
For me, I look at the Connections kind of like those Magic Eye 3D puzzles. Perhaps, I should look at every single word, but I kind of like to see what pops up to my brain and then how I can string the connections together.
Because I was still working baseball, I got the purple category next with curveball. I also may have just watched Dodgeball the other night. So throw a wrench was on the mind. After that I saw that you can throw a party and a tantrum. Sure, metaphorically you can do those things but I think you can also literally do it.
I now want cake after getting the blue category. I could go for a Black Forest Cake, though the options were birthday, crumb, marble and pound. All fine cakes.
The green category was solid, concrete, material, real if you will.
