Daily New York Times Puzzle Solutions: Thursday, July 17 Clues and Answers
The New York Times' Connections puzzle, a popular word game, challenges players to find groups of four words that share a common connection. Here's how to make the most of this engaging brain-teaser:
Start by scanning the 16 words for any obvious sets that belong together by theme, category, or similarity. For example, words that are all types of fruit, musical instruments, or brands often form a group.
Remember that connections can be based on synonyms, antonyms, parts of speech, compound words, idioms, or categories such as places, types of drinks, colours, and more. Broadening the types of relationships you look for will help you uncover hidden connections.
Use the process of elimination to your advantage. Once you identify a confirmed group of four words, remove them mentally or on paper to reduce the puzzle's complexity and isolate the remaining connections.
Don't shy away from looking for less obvious connections after easy groups are found. Analyse the remaining words for subtle links such as words that create a common phrase when combined with another word, or words related by a root or prefix.
If you're stuck, try rearranging suspected groups or testing different grouping possibilities. This approach can help reveal the correct connections.
Practice makes perfect, so regular play will improve your skill over time.
The game allows players to shuffle the grid of words and rearrange them to help better see the potential connections. Each group is colour-coded, with the yellow group being the easiest to figure out, followed by the green, blue, and purple groups.
In Connections, four correct words lead to the theme's revelation. Incorrect guesses count as mistakes, with a maximum of four allowed before the game ends. The Connections puzzle changes daily at midnight local time, and it can be played on the New York Times website or through the NYT Games app on iOS and Android.
On today's puzzle, the themes include words after "NO" to mean "it's all good", super endings with "FISH", and words after "NO" to mean "it's all good" - BIGGIE. The answers for today are MEDDLE - NOSE AROUND, POKE, PRY, SNOOP, BIGGIE - HARD FEELINGS, SWEAT, WORRIESSUPER - GLUE, MARIO WORLD, PAC, POWER, CAMISOLE - CAPE COD, DRUM AND BASS, WU-TANG.
Connections is similar to Wordle in that you can track your winning streak and compare scores with friends. Hints for today's Connections include the four themes and one word from each group. Wyna Liu, who has been editing puzzles at The New York Times since 2020, edits Connections daily.
The connections in Connections can encompass various concepts like titles of video game franchises, book series sequels, shades of red, names of chain restaurants, and more. The game resets every night at midnight and has varying degrees of difficulty. On the one-year anniversary of Connections launching, Liu posted a TikTok about her favourite puzzles so far.
Technology can be used to enhance your experience with The New York Times' Connections puzzle, as there are apps available for iOS and Android that allow you to play the game on-the-go. Entertainment, meanwhile, can be found in the diverse themes of the puzzle, such as 'super endings with "FISH"', which could lead you to explore various pop culture references related to superheroes and fish.
