Connections, a daily brain teaser, was launched by the creative minds at The New York Times in 2021. The team came together during an annual brainstorming event to craft something fresh for their website.
Liu, one of the game’s developers, creates the seven daily puzzles by drawing inspiration from her everyday life. She stays organized with a neat spreadsheet, while a trusty notebook is always close by to catch spontaneous ideas.
“Each board is crafted from scratch,” Liu explains, using her notebook and spreadsheet as her “digital sketchpad” when preparing the week’s puzzles. “I typically don’t know what direction a board will take, so it involves a lot of experimenting and exploring different possibilities.”
New York Times
How to Play ‘Connections’
The challenge is to group 16 words into four categories based on associations. For instance, if the words “clear,” “earn,” “make,” and “net” appear together, they can be categorized under “take home, as income.”
Instructions on how to play are provided below, but beware—hints and answers for Thursday’s puzzle are at the end!
Each category is color-coded to indicate difficulty: yellow (easiest), green, blue, and purple (hardest). The puzzles are trickier than they seem, often incorporating homophones and clever wordplay to keep you engaged.
Category themes cover a wide spectrum, ranging from Halloween costumes to music styles.
Correctly placing all four words in a category removes them from the board, but you can make up to four mistakes before the game ends. Players are encouraged to shuffle and rearrange words to facilitate guesses, but watch out—some words may fit multiple categories, although there is only one correct grouping.
‘Connections’ #431 Clues for Thursday, August 15
Yellow: Words meaning span.
Green: Terms that may refer to a spouse.
Blue: Informal names for popular ales.
Purple: Words that come after a three-letter word starting with ‘p’.
‘Connections’ #431 Answers for Thursday, August 15
Yellow Category: BREADTH
Yellow Words: Extent, Range, Reach, Scope
Green Category: OTHER HALF
Green Words: Complement, Match, Mate, Partner
Blue Category: BEERS, FAMILIARLY
Blue Words: Bud, Natty, Sierra, Stella
Purple Category: WORDS AFTER “PAY”
Purple Words: Check, Dirt, Pal, Phone
Did you crack the puzzle? If so, congrats! If not, don’t get discouraged—practice makes perfect, and a new Connections puzzle is just around the corner, coming out on Friday.
In the meantime, why not check out some other addictive online word games?