Green Group Working Fast! Anything to do with construction, repair, or upgrading was a blatant first category to be offered.
Yellow Group Highlights Inner Strength- Words such as grit, fortitude, resolve, and pluck referred to traits showing resilience.
Blue Group Further Slang Fun-Shenanigans: cream, crush, rout, and shellac tested players-afficionados of wordplay-related domination.
Purple Group Required Lateral Thinking-Tissue, toilet, crepe, and rolling challenged the players to identify soft or lightweight paper varieties.
Saturday’s NYT Connections puzzle arrives with a playful mix of straightforward categories and one especially tricky set. Compared to some recent challenges, today’s game feels easier overall, but it still offers plenty of clever misdirection. Players who spot subtle wordplay and keep an eye out for overlapping meanings will find success.
NYT Connections is one of the most popular games from The New York Times, second only to the crossword. The game begins with a grid of 16 words. The goal is to sort the words into four groups with a common theme. Each puzzle has only one correct solution.
The groups are color-coded by difficulty. Yellow is the easiest, green and blue fall in the middle, and purple is the hardest, often involving trickier wordplay. Each correct set removes those words from the board. Incorrect guesses cost lives, and after four mistakes, the game ends.
TISSUE
WORK
PLUCK
CONSTRUCTION
CRUSH
CREPE
CREAM
RESOLVE
ROLLING
REPAIRS
SHELLAC
TOILET
GRIT
ROUT
UPGRADES
FORTITUDE
Yellow Group Hint
Inner strength and determination. Think of traits that describe resilience.
One word clue: GRIT
Green Group Hint
Focus on building and fixing. These are linked to projects and improvements.
One word clue: REPAIRS
Blue Group Hint
Total domination. Consider terms that describe an overwhelming victory.
One word clue: CRUSH
Purple Group Hint
Thin and lightweight materials. Look for words associated with soft types of paper.
One word clue: TISSUE
Yellow Group – Intrepidy
FORTITUDE, GRIT, PLUCK, RESOLVE
Green Group – Renovations
CONSTRUCTION, REPAIRS, UPGRADES, WORK
Blue Group – Trounce
CREAM, CRUSH, ROUT, SHELLAC
Purple Group – Kinds of Soft/Lightweight Paper
CREPE, ROLLING, TISSUE, TOILET
Today’s NYT Connections puzzle leans toward an easier setting, sprinkling a few fine-eyed twists here and there. The green group is a dead giveaway, with the words 'repairs' and 'upgrades' immediately suggesting construction projects. This is the one category that gets solved first.
The yellow group should also come fairly easy, consisting of traits relating to inner strength. Words such as "grit" and "fortitude" stand out in the group, with "resolve" rounded out by "clarity." The only slight hold-up may be pluck, which can mean having courage or pulling.
The blue group offers a fun challenge. Cream and crush are often used in slang to mean overwhelming victory, but shellac feels like the trick term. Many players recognize it as a varnish, yet in certain contexts it also means "to defeat badly." This word gives the group its playful edge.
Purple follows the tradition of the puzzle by saving the strangest connection for last. Tissue and toilet paper go quickly; crepe and rolling need more thought. Rolling paper, used as it is mostly in a very specific cultural context, can be tricky if that connection is unfamiliar to the solver. And there is even a more tortured definition for crepe-as a thin fabric as opposed to a thin paper. This category rewards lateral thinking.
August 16 NYT Connections offers a wonderful blend of straightforward clues and subtle misdirection. Construction is a gimme for most players, while the inner strength offers an uplifting theme. Tounce gives energy with slang-based connections, while the paper group keeps it playful with double meanings.
Today’s puzzle feels lighter and more accessible than previous puzzles. The chief challenges arise from alternative uses of words like "shellac" and "crepe." This puzzle particularly rewards players who play with that flexibility and an open mind.
Winning words enable the New York Times Connections to succeed because of an amalgamation of logic, some wordplay, and culture. This puzzle reminds the player that sometimes keys are not just meanings but might be slang, metaphors, or alternate definitions. Keeping such a balance keeps the game fresh, enjoyable, and challenging every day.