Today’s NYT Connections Hints (and Answer) for Sunday, June 30, 2024

If you’re looking for the Connections answer for Sunday, June 30, 2024, read on—I’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solutions to all four categories. Along the way, I’ll explain the meanings of the trickier words and we’ll learn how everything fits together. Beware, there are spoilers below for June 30, NYT Connections #385! Read on if you want some hints (and then the answer) to today’s Connections game. 

If you want an easy way to come back to our Connections hints every day, bookmark this page. You can also find our past hints there as well, in case you want to know what you missed in a previous puzzle.

Below, I’ll give you some oblique hints at today’s Connections answers. And farther down the page, I’ll reveal the themes and the answers. Scroll slowly and take just the hints you need!

Credit: Connections/NYT

Hints for the themes in today’s Connections puzzle

Here are some spoiler-free hints for the groupings in today’s Connections:

• Yellow category – Words describing a folksy bit of wisdom.
• Green category – Types of power used by an outdoor cooking apparatus.
• Blue category – Examples of the type of plant that grow new rings every year. 
• Purple category – A small outdoor pool of warm, relaxing water needs these things to work properly.

BEWARE: Spoilers follow for today’s Connections puzzle!

We’re about to give away some of the answers. Scroll slowly if you don’t want the whole thing spoiled. (The full solution is a bit further down.)

A heads up about the tricky parts

There are a bunch of words on the board today that could be magazine titles, like MAXIM and EBONY, but there is no magazine category today (he yelled, angry and exhausted).

SAW does not refer to a thing used to cut down a tree; it’s another word for “proverb.” 

Burning CHARCOAL will result in ASH, but they belong to different categories today.

What are the categories in today’s Connections?

• Yellow: OLD SAYING
• Green: GRILL FUEL SOURCES
• Blue: TREES
• Purple: HOT TUB COMPONENTS

DOUBLE BEWARE: THE SOLUTION IS BELOW

Ready to learn the answers to today’s Connections puzzle? I give them all away below.

What are the yellow words in today’s Connections?

The yellow grouping is considered to be the most straightforward. The theme for today’s yellow group is OLD SAYING and the words are: ADAGE, CHESTNUT, MAXIM, SAW.

What are the green words in today’s Connections?

The green grouping is supposed to be the second-easiest. The theme for today’s green category is GRILL FUEL SOURCES and the words are: CHARCOAL, ELECTRIC, GAS, WOOD.

What are the blue words in today’s Connections?

The blue grouping is the second-hardest. The theme for today’s blue category is TREES and the words are: ASH, CHERRY, EBONY, GUM.

What are the purple words in today’s Connections?

The purple grouping is considered to be the hardest. The theme for today’s purple category is HOT TUB COMPONENTS and the words are: FILTER, HEATER, JET, PUMP.

How I solved today’s Connections

I’m seeing a lot of industrial words on the board today. MAXIM and EBONY next to each other make me think of the magazine titles, but I don’t see other obvious ones. Oh, maybe ADAGE is “Ad Age.” Isn’t PUMP a magazine, too? Hmm, nope, that’s a miss. I really thought I had it.

Let’s try something more straightforward: GAS, WOOD, ELECTRIC, and CHARCOAL are all fuel types or sources of energy. ?

I think CHESTNUT, EBONY, CHERRY, and ASH could all be types of wood, maybe. “One away.” Oops, I just realized I had GUM selected instead of EBONY. Still “one away!” Only one mistake left. 

I think JET is a magazine, too, but I’m not ready to throw another guess out.

Oh, maybe FILTER, HEATER, PUMP, and JET all go together as parts of a pool or hot tub. ? All right, finally making progress.

Wow, these last eight words are tough and I only have one shot to get it right. 

MAXIM and ADAGE could also be synonyms for “truth” or “motto” or “wisdom.” I wonder if that goes with CHESTNUT, as in “that old chestnut.” Hmm, a quick Google tells me that SAW can also be a word referring to a general truth. ? That was the yellow category? Jeez, that was tough for me.

That leaves EBONY, CHERRY, ASH, and GUM, which must all be types of trees. ? I got a bit bruised and battered, but I did it. That magazine thing was a total red herring. 

How to play Connections

I have a full guide to playing Connections, but here’s a refresher on the rules:

First, find the Connections game either on the New York Times website or in their Games app (formerly the Crossword app). You’ll see a game board with 16 tiles, each with one word or phrase. Your job is to select a group of four tiles that have something in common. Often they are all the same type of thing (for example: RAIN, SLEET, HAIL, and SNOW are all types of wet weather) but sometimes there is wordplay involved (for example, BUCKET, GUEST, TOP TEN, and WISH are all types of lists: bucket list, guest list, and so on).

Select four items and hit the Submit button. If you guessed correctly, the category and color will be revealed. (Yellow is easiest, followed by green, then blue, then purple.) If your guess was incorrect, you’ll get a chance to try again.

You win when you’ve correctly identified all four groups. But if you make four mistakes before you finish, the game ends and the answers are revealed.

How to win Connections

The most important thing to know to win Connections is that the groupings are designed to be tricky. Expect to see overlapping groups. For example, one puzzle seemed to include six breakfast foods: BACON, EGG, PANCAKE, OMELET, WAFFLE, and CEREAL. But BACON turned out to be part of a group of painters along with CLOSE, MUNCH, and WHISTLER, and EGG was in a group of things that come by the dozen (along with JUROR, ROSE, and MONTH). So don’t hit “submit” until you’ve confirmed that your group of four contains only those four things.

If you’re stuck, another strategy is to look at the words that seem to have no connection to the others. If all that comes to mind when you see WHISTLER is the painting nicknamed “Whistler’s Mother,” you might be on to something. When I solved that one, I ended up googling whether there was a painter named Close, because Close didn’t fit any of the obvious themes, either.

Another way to win when you’re stuck is, obviously, to read a few helpful hints–which is why we share these pointers every day. Check back tomorrow for the next puzzle!