If you’re looking for the Connections answer for Wednesday, August 28, 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 August 28, NYT Connections #444! 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!
Hints for the themes in today’s Connections puzzle
Here are some spoiler-free hints for the groupings in today’s Connections:
- Yellow category – Time for recess.
- Green category – They’re all suspended.
- Blue category – They share an adjective in common that refers to moisture.
- Purple category – A fill-in-the-blank, with a word describing someone of very young age.
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
Be careful before submitting your guesses for the playground category—there are some red herrings.
A TEETOTALER is someone who doesn’t drink alcohol.
There’s no category involving the “tee” sound, despite there being a lot of those words on the board.
What are the categories in today’s Connections?
- Yellow: PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT
- Green: FOUND AT THE END OF A STRING/CORD
- Blue: DESCRIBED AS DRY
- Purple: BABY ___
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 PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT and the words are: MONKEY BARS, SLIDE, SWINGS, TEETER-TOTTER.
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 FOUND AT THE END OF A STRING/CORD and the words are: PENDULUM, TEA BAG, TETHERBALL, YO-YO.
What are the blue words in today’s Connections?
The blue grouping is the second-hardest. The theme for today’s blue category is DESCRIBED AS DRY and the words are: DESERT, HUMOR, MARTINI, TEETOTALER.
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 BABY ___ and the words are: BLUES, BOOMER, STEPS, TEETH.
How I solved today’s Connections
An interesting board today. I see some childhood playground equipment on the board—let’s see if it’s enough for a category.
OK, we have MONKEY BARS, TETHERBALL, SLIDE, and TEETER-TOTTER. SWINGS could also fit, so I’ll keep looking to see what I can eliminate with another category.
A PENDULUM, SWINGS, YO-YO, and TEETER-TOTTER all have a back-and-forth motion to them, but that would eliminate my playground category, so I’m not ready to commit to that either.
TEETH, TEA BAG, TEETOTALER, and TEETER-TOTTER all have the “tee” sound at the beginning.
Oh, and YO-YO, TEA BAG, and TETHERBALL, and PENDULUM are all objects suspended by a string. That one actually feels like the strongest hit, for some reason. Let’s try. ? Sweet.
OK, let’s try MONKEY BARS, SLIDE, SWINGS, and TEETER-TOTTER. ?
Ah, I’ve got it—MARTINI, DESERT, TEETOTALER, and HUMOR are all words that can be described as “dry.” A dry martini contains less vermouth, and a teetotaler is someone who doesn’t drink alcohol—also referred to as being “dry.” ?
That leaves STEPS, BOOMER, TEETH, and BLUES. Hmm. BLUES is a type of music and it also refers to being sad. BOOMER could be a reference to a baby BOOMER. Oh, that’s it, they all go with “baby.” Baby STEPS, referring to small incremental progress; baby BOOMER; baby TEETH; and baby BLUES, a reference to postpartum depression. ?
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!
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