Criticism Words: BASH, BLAST, FLAME, ROAST – sharp terms used to ridicule or attack, whether in humor or hostility.
Heteronyms: AXES, BASS, COORDINATE, DOES – words spelled the same but carrying different sounds and meanings.
“Sticks” Wordplay: CHOP, DRUM, FIDDLE, FISH – each pairing with “sticks” to create familiar, playful expressions.
The New York Times Connections puzzle still pushes players’ understanding of meaning and connection. Sunday’s grid (Puzzle #744) indulged in wordplay and misdirection, with a balance of lighthearted categories and more challenging linguistic trickery.
At first glance, the words appeared random across music, food, and video games, but once the groupings began to coalesce, the puzzle showed its signature depth and cleverness.
What appeared to be self-evident sets (fish, drum, fiddle) were only half the tale. More careful examination forced solvers to balance slang, homonyms, and word-building puzzles, all within the game’s merciless limit of four errors. Cleanly solved or bumbling over the final set, today’s puzzle typified Connections’ weekend morsel.
COORDINATE, FISH, DRUM, PIECES, DOES, BOARD, BASS, FIDDLE, DICE, CHOP, CARDS, AXES
Yellow: Criticize Harshly – BASH, BLAST, FLAME, ROAST
This group tapped into the contemporary vocabulary of insult. To roast a person with jest or put them on blast, these verbs reside in the realm of biting criticism, both online and in real life.
Green: Board Game Components – BOARD, CARDS, DICE, PIECES
A familiar category with easy words. These are the four supports of nearly any tabletop game, anchoring the grid in a solid world of play.
Blue: Heteronyms – AXES, BASS, COORDINATE, DOES
Here, the puzzle was more linguistic. These words change meaning or pronunciation based on context: axes as tools or axes of geometry, bass as fish or instrument, coordinate as noun or verb, does as verb or plural deer.
Purple: ___STICKS – CHOP, DRUM, FIDDLE, FISH
The most playful of the day’s sets. Adding ‘sticks’ to each gives chopsticks, drumsticks, fiddlesticks, fish sticks, a clicking joy that many solvers probably arrived at with a grin.
Today’s NYT Connections was an evenly matched exercise in wordplay, balancing the obvious against the devious. The ‘sticks’ group offered a lighthearted payoff, while the heteronyms required a more refined linguistic sensibility. In between, the roast-themed verbs played up the game’s facility at recording slang and evolving registers of English.
What appeared to be a simple Sunday soon became a complex experience. Connections again demonstrated why it is now part of a daily habit among word enthusiasts through the combination of easy categories and witty linguistic pitfalls.
Until next week’s grid, happy connecting.