Cracking Today's NYT Brain-Teasers - The June 12, 2021 Edition (#367) Solutions and Strategies

Cracking Today’s NYT Brain-Teasers - The June 12, 2021 Edition (#367) Solutions and Strategies

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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 367th Connections game to get you started:

Yellow: Neighborhoods, boroughs, and streets?
Green: They sound alike.
Blue: Not in Metric Units.
Purple: The first word matters.

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

Yellow: Places in New York City.
Green: Rhyming Titles
Blue: Ending in Units of Measurement
Purple: Starting with Animals

Today’s NYT Connections Answers

Places in New York City (Yellow):

Chinatown, Dumbo, Manhattan, Wall Street

Rhyming Titles (Green):

Be Kind Rewind, E.T., Fright Night, Kill Bill

Ending in Units of Measurement (Blue):

Hedwig and the Angry Inch, My Left Foot, The Green Mile, The Longest Yard

Starting with Animals (Purple):

Beetlejuice, Dogma, Foxy Brown, Octopoussy

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How Did We Solve This Connections Game?

My first thought on viewing the words (or phrases really) for June 12th’s game was “Whoa.” If the last few games have been a bit easy, this is sure to compensate.

I was completely overwhelmed at first.

I decided to start with Manhattan for… no particular reason at all. When I’m totally lost, I start with what I know about a word. Manhattan is a borough in NYC, but it also commonly refers to a drink, a type of clam chowder (the superior kind—I’ll die on this hill), or the code name for the nuclear weapons programs of the United States in the 1940s. So, I figured I was either looking for words related to New York City, alcoholic drinks, clam chowder (possibly other seafood), or nuclear weapons programs. I chose to exclude the last one because it seemed improbable.

Wall Street is a very famous street in the Financial District (located in Lower Manhattan), so that points towards “Words related to New York City.” Chinatown is a neighborhood in Manhattan too, which further adds credence to that idea. That left Dumbo, which is a neighborhood in Brooklyn. That made me quite confident the group was “Places in New York City.” The group’s color was Yellow.

Okay, one group down.

The next title I latched on to was Fright Night, and the thing that jumped out at me on closer inspection was that the words rhymed. Quickly skimming the remaining words, I found three others that also rhymed: Be Kind Rewind, E.T., and Kill Bill. That was too much of a coincidence to ignore, so I just guessed they were a group. Together, they made up the Green group, “Rhyming Titles.”

With only 8 left, something else jumped out at me: 4 titles end in units of measure. Hewing and the Angry Inch, My Left Foot, The Green Mile, and The Longest Yard. That seemed like a strong connection, and luckily, I was right. Blue was “Ending in Units of Measurement.”

That left Beetlejuice, Dogma, Foxy Brown, and Octopussy—decidedly unrelated titles. Purple was just “Starting with Animals.”

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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.

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.

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