NYT Connections Today — Hints and Answers for Tuesday, August 20 (Contest #436)
Good morning! Let’s play Connections, the NYT’s clever word game that challenges you to group answers into different categories. It can be tricky, so read on if you need some clues.
What do you do when you’re done? Well, play some word games of course. I also have daily Wordle hints and answers , Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help with those too.
SPOILER ALERT: Below is information about today’s NYT Connections. So don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.
NYT Connections Today (Contest #436) – Today’s Words
The words of today’s NYT Connections are…
- CAT
- STOOL
- BLOW
- POP
- LION
- GRINCH
- WIND
- TURTLE
- CRAB
- RINSE
- PRELIMINARY VERSION
- RAM
- PUF
- BULL
- PLAY
- GUST OF WIND
NYT Connections Today (Contest #436) – Hint #1 – Group Hints
What are some clues to the current NYT Connections groups?
- Yellow: Is there a breeze in here?
- Vegetables: Twist
- Blue: Celestial beings
- Purple: Doctor of rhymes
Do you need more pointers?
We’re really getting into spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today’s NYT Connections puzzles…
NYT Connections Today (Game #436) – Hint #2 – Group Answers
What are the answers for the current NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: WIND CURRENTS
- GREEN: TURN
- BLUE: ZODIAC SYMBOLS
- PURPLE: DR. SEUSS TITLE FIGURES
Okay, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Connections Today (Contest #436) – The Answers
The answers to today’s Connections game, #436, are…
- YELLOW: WIND CURRENTS BLOW, DRAFT, FLAME, PUFF
- GREEN: TURN CRANK, REEL, TURN, WINDING
- BLUE: ZODIAC SYMBOLS BULL, CRAB, LION, ARIES
- PURPLE: DR. SEUSS TITLE FIGURES CAT, GRINCH, DOLL, TURTLE
- My rating: Moderate
- My score: 2 mistakes
Damn it, NYT. Putting WIND in a puzzle with BLOW, DRAFT, GUST, and PUFF is guaranteed to get you in trouble with anyone dumb enough to fall into your trap – which is exactly what I did. Damn it!
To make matters worse, that yellow group was the easiest of the four today, even though it was the one that cost me two mistakes. I had already seen the Dr. Seuss connection for purple, with POP (in socks), CAT (in hat), and GRINCH, but I couldn’t figure out what the latter was. So I ignored that and concentrated on the others, and after my brief foray into getting wind-related answers wrong, I was able to solve yellow and green.
That left five answers: BULL, LION, TURTLE, CRAB, and RAM. One went with Dr. Seuss, the other four formed the blue group. I thought about it for a long time, then I saw the zodiac group and was able to play TURTLE to complete purple standard. And in case you were wondering, it was Yertle the turtle…
How was your day? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s Answers to NYT Connections (Monday, August 19, Contest #435)
- YELLOW: MUSIC GENRES BLUES, COUNTRY, FOLK, ROCK
- GREEN: BRATWURST ADD-ONS BRAT, BUNCH, MUSTARD, SAUERKRAUT
- BLUE: YOGA POSES CHAIR, MOUNTAIN, TREE, WARRIOR
- PURPLE: GETTING STARTED WITH PIXAR FILMS COCONUT, SOULMATE, UPDO, WALLET
What is NYT Connections?
NYT Connections is one of the increasingly popular word games from the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that have something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a bit harder, blue is often quite difficult, and purple is usually very difficult.
On the plus side, you don’t technically have to solve the last question, because you can answer it by elimination. Plus, you can make a maximum of four mistakes, which gives you some breathing room.
It is a bit more complicated than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For example, watch out for homophones and other wordplay that can obscure the answers.
It is free to play via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
