Today's NYT Connections Hints (and Answer) for Tuesday, August 13, 2024
If you’re looking for the Connections answer for Tuesday, August 13, 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 August 13, NYT Connections #429! 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 - Words you might see after a line of dialogue in a book.
- Green category - It’s not on their birth certificate, but is a valid way to refer to them nonetheless.
- Blue category - Hard to ignore.
- Purple category - A fill-in-the-blank, with a word referring to a structure in which people live.
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
SOBRIQUET is a word meaning “nickname.”
WHEEL and SPOKE don’t go together.
VOICED and PRONOUNCED don’t go together.
What are the categories in today’s Connections?
- Yellow: STATED
- Green: NICKNAME
- Blue: OBVIOUS
- Purple: ___ HOUSE (THAT AREN’T HOUSES)
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 STATED and the words are: SAID, SPOKE, TOLD, VOICED.
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 NICKNAME and the words are: DESIGNATION, HANDLE, MONIKER, SOBRIQUET.
What are the blue words in today’s Connections?
The blue grouping is the second-hardest. The theme for today’s blue category is OBVIOUS and the words are: CLEAR, MARKED, PRONOUNCED, STRIKING.
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 ___ HOUSE (THAT AREN’T HOUSES) and the words are: PORTER, POWER, ROUGH, WHEEL.
How I solved today’s Connections
There are two words I feel like I need to Google to understand the puzzle better: PORTER and SOBRIQUET.
PORTER is a person who carries luggage, like in a hotel or airport. It’s also a type of dark beer.
A SOBRIQUET is a nickname.
OK, with that out of the way, it looks like SAID, SPOKE, TOLD, and VOICE are probably all in the same category, because they are past tense words for expressing something aloud. 🟨
PRONOUNCED could have theoretically fit in the last category, but I think here it probably means “noticeable,” as in “a PRONOUNCED lump in his arm.” I say that because I also see STRIKING, CLEAR, and MARKED, which all have the same meaning. 🟦
SOBRIQUET goes with MONIKER, and I think that could also go with DESIGNATION and HANDLE (as in, an online handle or username). 🟩
That leaves PORTER, ROUGH, POWER, and WHEEL. Hmm, things that spin, the first thing that comes to mind is the word “trip.” A PORTER might take your luggage when you’re on a trip, you can have a ROUGH trip or a POWER trip. WHEEL is a bit of an outlier there, though.
Not sure what the connection is! Let’s see. 🟪 “___ HOUSE” (THAT AREN’T HOUSES).” Hmm, yep, never would have guessed that. A PORTERhouse is a “large steak,” apparently. To “ROUGH house” means to play in a rough manner; a POWERhouse is someone or something that is very formidable; and a WHEELhouse refers to someone’s area of expertise.
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!
Engaging with the text, here are two sentences that contain the given words:
You can find past Connections hints and solutions on the NYT Connections page, acting as a convenient resource for future entertainment and challenges. Utilizing the clues for the categories, the yellow group features words related to stating, such as SAID, SPOKE, TOLD, and VOICED.
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