June 23 New York Times Insight & Solution Guide - Connection Challenges Edition

Quick Links

• What Is Connections?
• Hints for Today’s Connections Groups
• Today’s NYT Connections Answers
• How Did We Solve This Connections Game?
• How Do You Guess Connections Groups?

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 378th Connections game to get you started:

• Yellow: Ways to tell people to calm down.
• Green: When you feel unwell.
• Blue: The gentle giants of the oceans.
• Purple: Slang terms for specific urban areas.

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

• Yellow: “Settle Down!”
• Green: Minor Ailments
• Blue: What Humpback Whales Do
• Purple: ____ City Nicknames

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Today’s NYT Connections Answers

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“Settle Down!” (Yellow):

Easy, Enough, Quiet, Relax

Minor Ailments (Green):

Bug, Chill, Cold, Cough

What Humpback Whales Do (Blue):

Breach, Dive, Sing, Spout

____ City Nicknames (Purple):

Magic, Motor, Sin, Windy

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How Did We Solve This Connections Game?

June 23rd seemed harder than yesterday’s game, though it was far from the worst.

The first word I started with was quiet. It didn’t seem any of the other words matched the noun definition of the word (as in a lack of sound), so I assumed we were looking for the verb form, which generally means “to make quiet.” Easy, enough, and relax aren’t exact matches, but they do fit the idea of “Calm Down,” so I stuck them together. Yellow was “Settle Down!”

The next word I looked at was dive. Absolutely nothing matched as a synonym, so I started thinking about things that dive, since I figured we might be looking at a collection of words related by a single thing. That was a good way to approach the problem, and I quickly settled on breach, dive, sing, and spout—all things whales do. Blue was “What Humpback Whales Do,” though the words apply to most whales.

Cold, cough, chill, and bug are all ways to talking about illness, usually a pretty minor illness, so I tried putting those in a group. They belonged to the Green group, “Minor Ailments.”

That left Magic, Motor, Sin, and Windy, words I’d previously found extremely difficult to fit in anywhere. It wasn’t until they were completely isolated that I realized they’re nicknames for specific cities in the United States. The Magic City is Birmingham, Alabama, Motor City refers to Detroit, Michigan, Sin City is a nickname for Las Vegas, Nevada, and the Windy City is the most popular nickname for Chicago, Illinois. Purple was just “___ City Nicknames.”

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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.