NYT Connections today is where fun, logic, creativity, and cultural knowledge combine.
The puzzles are in categories such as blunders, fantasy lands, antennaed objects, and doodles.
The hints and complete answers for August 21 easily point out the tricky connections.
Engaging wordplays and double meanings keep the players thinking and entertained.
The NYT Connections puzzle for Thursday, August 21, 2025, surely holds the player's mind with interesting wordplay and imaginative themes. Today's puzzle brings tricky connections involving errors, make-believe lands, objects with antennas, and childish doodles. Such cultural reference-giving and slight misdirection render the puzzle fun and quite challenging.
Players had a grid of sixteen words, many of which, at first glance, might fit into several categories. The puzzle requires attention to detail and sharper observation to determine each group of four words properly. Some connections are easy to spot, but others require lateral thinking, which keeps one intellectually entertained.
NYT Connections is a daily word game by The New York Times. In each puzzle variant, 16 words are presented, and you must group those words into four groups of four, using a feature they all share as a reference.
The groups are color-coded yellow, green, blue, and purple. Some words can fit into two or more categories and must be deliberated on carefully.
The game includes a limited number of guesses. Selecting an incorrect group costs a life, while near-complete guesses hint at the final word. The game ends if four mistakes are made.
NYT subscribers can access previous puzzles in the Connections archive, which is ideal for practice or revisiting tricky challenges.
DIPSY
DREAM
CHEESE
SATELLITE DISH
LA-LA
TELETUBBY
NO-NO
YANKEE
BOO-BOO
RADIO TOWER
NEVER NEVER
FLUB
INSECT
FANTASY
GAFFE
Yellow Group – Blunder
Hint: Ugh, my bad
One-word hint: NO-NO
Green Group – Lands of Imagination
Hint: Settings for many kids' stories
One-word hint: FANTASY
Blue Group – Objects with Antennae
Hint: They help transmit or detect information
One-word hint: SATELLITE DISH
Purple Group – ____ Doodle
Hint: Linked by something done mindlessly in class or on the phone
One-word hint: DIPSY
Yellow Group – Blunder: BOO-BOO, FLUB, GAFFE, NO-NO
Green Group – Lands of Imagination: DREAM, FANTASY, LA-LA, NEVER NEVER
Blue Group – Objects with Antenna/E: INSECT, RADIO TOWER, SATELLITE DISH, TELETUBBY
Purple Group – ____ Doodle: CHEESE, DIPSY, GOOGLE, YANKEE
The Connections puzzle today does now and then take an awkward mix of straightforward and tricky pairings.
The yellow group is for mistakes and is straightforward to nail, while the green, blue, and purple all contain overlapping themes, working with a dash of misdirection.
TELETUBBY is a fun red herring, as some characters belong in more than one group. Looking for common traits, such as antennae or cultural references like doodles, is valuable for quick guessing.
The purple group for different types of doodles needed some culture and lateral thinking. The reference to things such as a "Cheese Doodle" or a "Google Doodle" helped to smooth out the final picks.
Overall, an engaging set of puzzles that was not overly hard, offering enough challenge to entertain the neophytes and the veterans.
The August 21 puzzle exemplifies how NYT Connections merges logic, wordplay, and cultural references. New Yorkers benefit from noticing subtle overlaps and using previously available hints if needed.
This puzzle continues the creative themes requiring reasoning while putting a smile on the solver's face. It is unique due to the combination of straightforward categories and more challenging, fantasy-like connections that help keep the game fresh and entertaining.