NYT Connections Today — Hints and Answers for Wednesday, July 24 (Contest #409)
Is this an easier Connections puzzle? No way! It’s another tough one from the NYT, so read on for my hints.
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 #409) – Today’s Words
The words of today’s NYT Connections are…
- CHILD
- CALF
- THIGH
- KIT
- TENDER
- SHOULDER
- MUSCLE
- RIB
- DEER
- PLAGUES
- REPLACE
- CUB
- CHEST
- SHIPPING VESSEL
- RAZZ
- WING
NYT Connections Today (Contest #409) – Hint #1 – Group Hints
What are some clues to the current NYT Connections groups?
- Yellow: You laugh
- Vegetable: Finger-licking good
- Blue: Aaaah, cute!
- Purple: Get out of my way!
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 #409) – Hint #2 – Group Answers
What are the answers for the current NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: JOKE WITH
- GREEN: POULTRY CUTS
- BLUE: BABY ANIMALS
- PURPLE: PUSH THROUGH A CROWD
Okay, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Connections Today (Contest #409) – The Answers
The answers to today’s Connections game, #409, are…
- YELLOW: JOKE WITH KIND, RAZZ, RIB, TEASE
- BLUE: BABY ANIMALS CALF, CUB, STRANGER, KIT
- PURPLE: PUSH THROUGH A CROWD BARGE, PUSH, MUSCLE, SHOULDER
- GREEN: POULTRY CUTS BREAST, TENDER, THIGH, WING
- My score: Moderate
- My score: 2 mistakes
The NYT’s insistence on throwing misdirection into every Connections puzzle can be a little irritating. Today is a good example, as I’ve lost twice to what could or perhaps should have been easy answers but weren’t. And in one case, I think the non-answer was better than the actual solution.
My problems started with the baby animal group, which ended up being the blue one. I played CUB, CALF, KID and FAWN – because they are all baby animals of course – but that was wrong. So I looked elsewhere and realised KID could also do TEASE and RIB, oh and RAZZ would fit in there too, so I tried that and solved the yellow ‘joke with’ group. Then I looked at the animals again, swapped KIT in and solved that. Good.
But that left eight answers. I had already looked at SHOULDER, WING, THIGH and BREAST and thought they must be chicken pieces, but hadn’t guessed because the presence of CALF, MUSCLE and RIB made me think there might be some other meat or body part related answer. But I tried it now, and – to my surprise – it was wrong. What’s going on? So I looked elsewhere and got the ‘push through a crowd’ group instead, adding SHOULDER to BARGE, JOSTLE and MUSCLE, which meant that the last group was indeed ‘poultry cuts’ – but with TENDER in it. We don’t even call them tenders in the UK, and even in the US they should be TENDERLOIN, right? I’m no expert, but either way, this was a bit frustrating, even if it was technically allowed.
How was your day? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s Answers to NYT Connections (Tuesday, July 23, Contest #408)
- YELLOW: CHEATER CHARLATAN, FRAUD, QUACKER, DECEIT
- GREEN: VERDICT SOUND, BEEP, SOUND, WORD
- BLUE: SOMEONE WHO LOVES TO SHOW OFF HAM, HOTDOG, PEACOCK, SHOWBOAT
- PURPLE: LOONEY TUNES CHARACTERS MINUS ONE LETTER BUG, PORK, SPEED, TWEET
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.
