Today's Connections NYT Hints (and Answer) for Wednesday, June 26, 2024
If you’re looking for the Connections answer for Wednesday, June 26, 2024, read on—I’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solutions to all four categories. Along the way, I’ll explain the meanings of the trickier words and we’ll learn how everything fits together. Beware, there are spoilers below for June 26, NYT Connections #381! Read on if you want some hints (and then the answer) to today’s Connections game.
If you want an easy way to come back to our Connections hints every day, bookmark this page. You can also find our past hints there as well, in case you want to know what you missed in a previous puzzle.
Below, I’ll give you some oblique hints at today’s Connections answers. And farther down the page, I’ll reveal the themes and the answers. Scroll slowly and take just the hints you need!
Credit: Connections/NYT
Hints for the themes in today’s Connections puzzle
Here are some spoiler-free hints for the groupings in today’s Connections:
- Yellow category - If you signed up to serve your country, you might earn one of these titles.
- Green category - If your devices are low on juice, you’d be on the lookout for one of these.
- Blue category - If you were trying to sell a product to a wide audience, you would likely need to prove these things existed before you got in too deep.
- Purple category - A fill-in-the-blank, with a word referring to something like a billboard or a commercial.
BEWARE: Spoilers follow for today’s Connections puzzle!
We’re about to give away some of the answers. Scroll slowly if you don’t want the whole thing spoiled. (The full solution is a bit further down.)
A heads up about the tricky parts
JACK and PORT go together, but not because they’re both types of alcohol.
MARKET, OUTLET, and POP-UP are all words associated with shopping and stores, but they belong to different categories.
PRIVATE and PERSONAL do not go together.
What are the categories in today’s Connections?
- Yellow: ARMY RANKS
- Green: PLACE TO PLUG SOMETHING IN
- Blue: CONSUMER DESIRE, COLLECTIVELY
- Purple: ___ AD
DOUBLE BEWARE: THE SOLUTION IS BELOW
Ready to learn the answers to today’s Connections puzzle? I give them all away below.
What are the yellow words in today’s Connections?
The yellow grouping is considered to be the most straightforward. The theme for today’s yellow group is ARMY RANKS and the words are: CAPTAIN, GENERAL, MAJOR, PRIVATE.
What are the green words in today’s Connections?
The green grouping is supposed to be the second-easiest. The theme for today’s green category is PLACE TO PLUG SOMETHING IN and the words are: JACK, OUTLET, PORT, SOCKET.
What are the blue words in today’s Connections?
The blue grouping is the second-hardest. The theme for today’s blue category is CONSUMER DESIRE, COLLECTIVELY and the words are: APPETITE, AUDIENCE, DEMAND, MARKET.
What are the purple words in today’s Connections?
The purple grouping is considered to be the hardest. The theme for today’s purple category is ___ AD and the words are: ATTACK, PERSONAL, POP-UP, WANT.
How I solved today’s Connections
PORT, OUTLET, SOCKET, and JACK are all words for places in the wall to plug in electronic devices. 🟩
DEMAND, MARKET, AUDIENCE, and APPETITE all describe a large-scale hunger or desire for a certain product. 🟦
CAPTAIN, MAJOR, GENERAL, and PRIVATE are all military ranks. 🟨
That leaves WANT, POP-UP, PERSONAL, and ATTACK, which are all types of advertisements. 🟪
How to play Connections
I have a full guide to playing Connections, but here’s a refresher on the rules:
First, find the Connections game either on the New York Times website or in their Games app (formerly the Crossword app). You’ll see a game board with 16 tiles, each with one word or phrase. Your job is to select a group of four tiles that have something in common. Often they are all the same type of thing (for example: RAIN, SLEET, HAIL, and SNOW are all types of wet weather) but sometimes there is wordplay involved (for example, BUCKET, GUEST, TOP TEN, and WISH are all types of lists: bucket list, guest list, and so on).
Select four items and hit the Submit button. If you guessed correctly, the category and color will be revealed. (Yellow is easiest, followed by green, then blue, then purple.) If your guess was incorrect, you’ll get a chance to try again.
You win when you’ve correctly identified all four groups. But if you make four mistakes before you finish, the game ends and the answers are revealed.
How to win Connections
The most important thing to know to win Connections is that the groupings are designed to be tricky. Expect to see overlapping groups. For example, one puzzle seemed to include six breakfast foods: BACON, EGG, PANCAKE, OMELET, WAFFLE, and CEREAL. But BACON turned out to be part of a group of painters along with CLOSE, MUNCH, and WHISTLER, and EGG was in a group of things that come by the dozen (along with JUROR, ROSE, and MONTH). So don’t hit “submit” until you’ve confirmed that your group of four contains only those four things.
If you’re stuck, another strategy is to look at the words that seem to have no connection to the others. If all that comes to mind when you see WHISTLER is the painting nicknamed “Whistler’s Mother,” you might be on to something. When I solved that one, I ended up googling whether there was a painter named Close, because Close didn’t fit any of the obvious themes, either.
Another way to win when you’re stuck is, obviously, to read a few helpful hints–which is why we share these pointers every day. Check back tomorrow for the next puzzle!
In this text, the author provides hints for the theme and answers for the yellow, green, blue, and purple categories in the NYT Connections puzzle. If you're interested in increasing your chances of winning, you might want to bookmark this page to come back to the hints every day. Additionally, entertainment-seekers looking for the Connections answer for a specific date could use MacBreaker's hints as a resource. For instance, 'nyt connections answer today' could be a search query to find the answer to today's Connections puzzle.
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