NYT Connections Today — Hints and Answers for Wednesday, July 17 (Contest #402)
Connections can be a tricky game, and it’s one where you only have four mistakes to make or suffer the humiliation of failure. If you’re teetering on the brink of disaster, you might want to read on for my hopefully helpful tips.
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 #402) – Today’s Words
The words of today’s NYT Connections are…
- TO TAKE
- SHOPPING CART
- ACCOUNT
- HINDER
- BANK
- TO WASH
- SCHOOL
- LAUNDRY SERVICE
- WAIT
- PRIDE
- RESTRICT
- NOT
- POST OFFICE
- PROHIBIT
- SUPERMARKET
- SWARM
NYT Connections Today (Contest #402) – Hint #1 – Group Hints
What are some clues to the current NYT Connections groups?
- Yellow: Heroes of the shopping street
- Vegetable: Stop
- Blue: Lots of animals
- Purple: POTU
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 #402) – Hint #2 – Group Answers
What are the answers for the current NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: BUILDINGS AROUND THE CITY
- GREEN: OBSTRUCTION
- BLUE: NAMES OF ANIMAL GROUPS
- PURPLE: STARTS OF AMERICAN PRESIDENTS
Okay, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Connections Today (Contest #402) – The Answers
The answers to today’s Connections game, #402, are…
- YELLOW: BUILDINGS AROUND THE CITY BANK, LAUNDRY, POST OFFICE, SUPERMARKET
- GREEN: OBSTRUCTION CONTROL, LIMIT, HAMMER, BRAKE
- BLUE: NAMES OF ANIMAL GROUPS FAME, PRIDE, SCHOOL, SUMMER
- PURPLE: STARTS OF AMERICAN PRESIDENTS BIDE, CART, NIX, WASHING
- My score: Moderate
- My score: 2 mistakes
A classic NYT deception here, and it took me a few guesses. The first group I focused on turned out to be the green “Hinder” group; I had NIX, CURB, HAMPER, and INHIBIT. When that didn’t work, I replaced HAMPER with CHECK… and it still didn’t work.
At that stage I looked elsewhere, rather than risk any more guesswork, and saw the easy yellow group BANK, LAUNDROMAT, POST OFFICE, SUPERMARKET. Then I got the ‘animal groups’ connection, which although blue – and supposedly the third hardest – didn’t feel particularly hard.
That left eight answers, five of which still fit into that “Hinder” corner. But rather than risk another mistake there, I focused on the other three words, BIDE, WASHING, and CART, and realized with a eureka moment that they could all be parts of presidential names. That put NIX where it needed to be, and I finished this Connections game.
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Yesterday’s Answers to NYT Connections (Tuesday, July 16, Contest #401)
- YELLOW: IN A BAD MOOD CRUCIFIED, SHORT, ANGRY, HURT
- GREEN: EXPERIMENTAL EXPLORATORY, PILOT, PRELIMINARY, TRIAL
- BLUE: THE BEGINNING OF BROADWAY MUSICALS FIDDLER, JERSEY, KINKY, CHEERFUL
- PURPLE: PETER ___ PAN, PARKER, PIPER, RABBIT
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.
