
The yellow group circumscribes sports terms that depict equality, such as DRAW and TIE.
The green group deals with words related to bestowing or giving away, including CONFER and GRANT.
The blue group deals with words describing typical boredom-related activities: DOODLE and PASS NOTES.
The purple group plays on words after the abbreviation "Ms." and includes MS PAINT and MS MARVEL.
NYT Connections of August 8, 2025, has a fun mix of links and wordplay. Sports terms, gifting verbs, classroom antics, and clever abbreviations associated with "Ms." all come together in this grid. The puzzle balances fairly straightforward categories with some tricky and playful links that provide a fair challenge to the solver but don't completely overwhelm the players.
NYT Connections is a daily word association game by The New York Times. Each day, 16 words drop on the floor, and you have to put them into four groups of four words each, each sharing one connection. The connections might describe literal meanings or visual clues; clues can be puns or cultural references.
Groups are color-coded by difficulty:
Yellow is generally taken to represent the easiest group.
Green and Blue stand for mediums in difficulty, and
Puzzles are primarily difficult, often involving wordplay or less obvious themes.
Four lives are allotted to a player; one life is lost with each incorrect guess. The task is to find all four correct groups before the player runs out of lives, a setup that encourages logic, pattern recognition, and occasional lateral thinking.
DEGREE DRAW PAC-MAN VEST PAINT PRESENT TIE DOODLE MARVEL SQUARE SPACE EVEN DOZE GRANT CONFER PASS NOTES
Yellow Group - Restore parity in a sporting contest.
Hint: TIE
Green Group - Hand over or award.
Hint: VEST
Blue Group - Things you might do during a boring class or meeting.
Hint: SPACE
Purple Group - Words that follow the abbreviation Ms.
Hint: DEGREE
Yellow: Equal
Green: Bestow
Blue: Boredom
Purple: Ms.
Yellow Group - Make Equal, As a Score: DRAW, EVEN, SQUARE, TIE
Green Group - Bestow: CONFER, GRANT, PRESENT, VEST
Blue Group - Things You Might Do During a Boring Class/Meeting: DOODLE, DOZE, PASS NOTES, SPACE
Purple Group - Words After the Letter “Ms.”: DEGREE, MARVEL, PAC-MAN, PAINT
The yellow group gravitates toward sports terms that revolve around equalizing scores and are relatively easy to understand: DRAW, EVEN, SQUARE, and TIE. This cluster is the fastest for most solvers to catch because the words are frequently used in ordinary conversations about games or competitions.
The green cluster contains words related to bestowing or awarding something. CONFER, GRANT, PRESENT, and VEST mainly or solely grant the transfer of honors, gifts, rights, and so forth. This set is fairly straightforward and complements the familiar yellow group.
The purple group is the most creative. In popular culture or usage, all four words are followed by the abbreviation “Ms.” For example, MS DEGREE and MS PAINT are immediately familiar. In contrast, MS MARVEL and MS PAC-MAN refer to well-known icons from comics and video games. This group is the trickiest cluster factor since it demands lateral thinking and some degree of culture.
The subtle misdirection might trip up solvers at first. Instead of thinking about superheroes or video games in isolation, the key here is to understand the “Ms.” prefix. This delightful twist makes the puzzle fun.
August 8’s NYT Connections puzzle nicely balances ease and challenge. It juxtaposes familiar ideas like tying scores and giving gifts with wilder collections from a more creative-culture vein. The “Ms.” group is the shining spotlight in clever wordplay and mass appeal, rewarding those who stray from the straight and narrow.
This shows that NYT Connections is a puzzle series boasting engaging variety that encourages the solver to switch between literal and lateral thinking. It also reminds the player that even common words can harbor clever connections.
Look forward to the next round of NYT Connections hints, answers, and insights. Every day presents new challenges and opportunities to improve word skills.