If you’re looking for the Connections answer for Sunday, July 21, 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 July 21, NYT Connections #406! 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 - Things to do when you want to encourage people to vote.
Green category - The building blocks of something.
Blue category - You’ll need these for woodworking.
Purple category - Shortened words you might hear in a statistics class, for example.
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
MAKEUP and TAN are both cosmetic/appearance words, but they have different meanings today.
CANVASS does not refer to a FABRIC used for paintings—it’s a term that refers to hitting the bricks and encouraging people to vote, for example.
FILE and ORGANIZE don’t belong to the same category.
What are the categories in today’s Connections?
Yellow: WAYS TO SUPPORT A CANDIDATE
Green: CONSTITUTION
Blue: CARPENTRY TOOLS
Purple: MATH ABBREVIATIONS
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 WAYS TO SUPPORT A CANDIDATE and the words are: CAMPAIGN, CANVASS, ORGANIZE, STUMP.
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 CONSTITUTION and the words are: COMPOSITION, FABRIC, MAKEUP, STRUCTURE.
What are the blue words in today’s Connections?
The blue grouping is the second-hardest. The theme for today’s blue category is CARPENTRY TOOLS and the words are: CLAMP, FILE, LEVEL, SAW.
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 MATH ABBREVIATIONS and the words are: LOG, MAX, MOD, TAN.
How I solved today’s Connections
I see a few themes trickling through the puzzle—tools and cosmetics?—but the word CANVASS sticks out to me. That spelling of the word refers specifically to soliciting votes, so I look for other similar words and find ORGANIZE and CAMPAIGN. I can’t find a fourth word right away, though—maybe I’ll try another category and it’ll pop out eventually.
MAKEUP, STRUCTURE, and COMPOSITION are all words referring to the building blocks of something—oh, and maybe FABRIC? 🟩
LEVEL, SAW, FILE, and CLAMP are all tools. Let’s try that. 🟦
If I go with my theory that CANVASS, ORGANIZE, and CAMPAIGN go together, then that leaves TAN, LOG, MAX, STUMP, and MOD. If I can figure out which of those five words belong to their own category, I’ll solve the other one by process of elimination.
I’m leaning toward TAN, LOG, MAX, and MOD being their own category—they all seem like math words, maybe?—and then a quick Google confirms my theory. STUMP is also a word referring to political campaigning, so I can pair that with the other political words. 🟨
Now to submit today’s purple category, TAN, LOG, MAX, and MOD. 🟪 Math abbreviations! TAN is tangent, LOG is logarithm, MAX is maximum, and MOD is (after a Google) probably modulo—a word referring to the remainder after doing division. Literally never heard that word in my life, but OK!
Connections Puzzle #406 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟪🟪🟪
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!