Looking for the latest NYT Connections help? Here are today’s hints and full answers, plus quick strategies to keep your streak alive. We also track daily hints and solutions for the Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition, and Strands.
New feature alert: The Times now offers a Connections Bot, similar to the Wordle bot. After you play, it can score your performance and analyze your guesses. If you’re signed in to Times Games, you can monitor your progress with metrics like puzzles completed, win rate, perfect scores, and streak length.
Hints for today’s groups (from easiest to trickiest)
– Yellow: Regular
– Green: Leave
– Blue: Read the fine print on your labels
– Purple: Not light, but …
Today’s Connections answers (Aug. 11, 2025 — Puzzle #792)
– Yellow — Ordinary: normal, plain, standard, vanilla
– Green — Abandon: desert, dump, maroon, strand
– Blue — Specs on consumer packaging: count, measure, volume, weight
– Purple — Dark ____: ages, chocolate, horse, matter
Notes and reasoning
– “Vanilla” feels like it should pair with “chocolate,” but today it’s grouped with words meaning ordinary. That fake-out is classic Connections misdirection.
– “Strand” can mislead because it’s both a noun (as in a thread) and a verb meaning to leave someone isolated; today it belongs with abandon.
– “Count” and “measure” are flexible terms, but the packaging angle (think “net weight,” “serving count,” “fluid volume,” “measure”) locks them into the specs group.
– “Dark horse” and “dark matter” are set phrases; once you spot two, the rest of the purple set falls into place.
Quick tips for future puzzles
– Say each word out loud before and after a blank, like “dark ___” or “___ weight.” Hearing the phrase can trigger the connection.
– Be wary of the “obvious” set. Editors love traps (e.g., words that appear to belong together but don’t).
– Split compound words and look for shared starters or endings; sometimes the link is in just one part of the word.
Summary
– Themes: Ordinary; Abandon; Packaging specs; Dark ____.
– Tricky bits: “Vanilla” not pairing with “chocolate,” and “strand” functioning as a verb.
– Good news for solvers: Once you identified one or two solid set phrases (like “dark horse” or “dark matter”), the purple group clicked quickly.
A little encouragement
Today’s grid had multiple red herrings, but it’s a great example of how thinking in phrases—not just individual word meanings—pays off. If you got tripped up by “vanilla,” you weren’t alone. Keep shuffling, test phrase frames out loud, and watch for editor-set traps.