August 13 Insight: Unlocking Today’s New York Times Connection Puzzle #428

Quick Links

• What Is Connections?
• Hints for Today’s Connections Groups
• Today’s NYT Connections Answers
• How Did We Solve This Connections Game?
• How Do You Guess Connections Groups?

Connections is a game from the New York Times that challenges you to find the association between words. It sounds easy, but it isn’t—Connections categories can be almost anything, and they’re usually quite specific. If you need a hand getting the answers, we’ve got you covered.

What Is Connections?

Connections is a game from the New York Times. The objective is simple: sort 16 words into groups of 4. Each group of words will be connected by some common idea or theme. That common element could be anything. We have seen everything from games that rely on the number of letters in the words to categories that require you to spot an extra letter at the end of the word. Sometimes they’re references to economics, other times they reference fairy tales. There is no telling what sort of association there will be between words.

Once you’re confident you understand the connection, select 4 words, then hit “Submit.” You have only four attempts in total, so don’t be too guess-happy.

Hints for Today’s Connections Groups

Here are a few hints for the 428th Connections game to get you started:

• Yellow: Said aloud.
• Green: What you might call someone or something instead of their real name.
• Blue: Self-evident.
• Purple: Also a famous medical drama.

If you still need help, the actual group names are:

• Yellow: Stated
• Green: Nickname
• Blue: Obvious
• Purple: ___ House (That Aren’t Houses)

Today’s NYT Connections Answers

Stated (Yellow):

Said, Spoke, Told, Voiced

Nickname (Green):

Designation, Handle, Moniker, Sobriquet

Obvious (Blue):

Clear, Marked, Pronounced, Striking

___ House (That Aren’t Houses) (Purple):

Porter, Power, Rough, Wheel

How Did We Solve This Connections Game?

August 13th had a word I didn’t recognize, which made it both interesting and a little harder.

The group I started with was the one that involved speech—said, spoke, told, and voiced. They were in the Yellow group, aptly named “Stated.”

I jumped to moniker (which is a nickname or pseudonym) next, and figured designation and handle were reasonable guesses for two of the other words. The 4th word, however, was a bit harder. The only word I didn’t recognize was sobriquet, and none of the others fit correctly. Sobriquet is a word for a nickname that is also descriptive. They were in the Green group, which was just “Nickname.”

Clear, marked, pronounced, and striking are all words that instantly stuck out as synonyms for “Obvious,” were in the Blue group.

That left porter, power, rough, and wheel—as unrelated words as I’ve ever seen, which usually means we’re missing a word or that there is a letter that needs to be added or removed. The letter trick didn’t work, so I moved on to trying different combinations of words before and after the words in Purple before finally (after way too long) landing on “house.” The Purple group was named “___ House.”

How Do You Guess Connections Groups?

There is no quick, reliable way to approach Connections like there is with Wordle, since Connections isn’t algorithmic. However, there are a few things to keep in mind that can help.

1. Look for similar parts of speech. Are some words verbs and others nouns? Are some adjectives? Try mentally grouping them based on those categories and see if any other patterns jump out at you.
2. Are the words synonyms? Sometimes categories will just be synonyms for a phrase, or very close to synonyms. Don’t rely too closely on this, though. Occasionally, Connections will deliberately throw in words that are sometimes synonyms to mislead you.
3. Try saying the words. Sometimes, saying the words helps. One puzzle we saw included the words go, rate, faster, clip, pace, speed, move, commute, and hurry—all of which are obviously related to the idea of motion. However, when you say them, it becomes a little more obvious that only four (go, move, hurry, faster) are things you’d actually say to prompt someone to get moving.
4. Expect the red herring . Connections usually has words that could be plausibly, yet incorrectly, grouped together. Take the words Bud, Corona, and Light, as an example. You might instinctively see those three words together and assume they’re lumped together in a category related to beer—but they weren’t.
5. Look for distinct words. If a word on your board doesn’t have multiple meanings or can really only be used in one context, try using that word as the basis for a category.
6. Shuffle the board. Sometimes, moving words around will help you look at them in new ways.

If you didn’t solve this one, don’t feel too bad—there’s always tomorrow! And those words may align with a topic you’re interested in, giving you a leg up on the competition.