Today’s Connections
Credit: NYT / Erik Kain
Looking for a little help with your Sunday Connections puzzle? If you’re looking for extra clues – or the answers – you’ve come to the right place. Below you’ll find an extra set of hints, the categories for each group and, finally, the solution to today’s puzzle.
I wrote a short piece arguing for changes – or one specific change, rather – that the New York Times should make to Connections this week. I doubt they’ll ever do it, so it might just be time for me to make my own game! I just need to learn how to code . . .
I also have a new streaming guide if you’re looking for some new shows or movies to check out this weekend. The Walking Dead returns this weekend, and a sequel to The Office which I really enjoyed.
In any case, we have a Connections to solve, so let’s group some words!
If you’re looking for Saturday’s Connections guide, it’s right here.
How To Play Connections
Connections is the second-most popular NYT Games puzzle game outside of the main crossword itself, and an extremely fun, free offering that will get your brain moving every day. Play it right here.
The goal is to take a group of 16 words and find links between four pairs of four of them. They could be specific categories of terms, or they could be little world puzzles where words may come before or after them you need to figure out. And they get more complicated from there.
There is only one set of right answers for this, and you only get a certain number of tries so you can’t just spam around until you find something. There are difficulty tiers coded by color, which will usually go from yellow, blue/green to purple as difficulty increases, so know that going in and when you start linking them together.
You pick the four words you think are linked and either you will get a solve and a lit up row that shows you how you were connected. If you’re close, it will tell you that you’re one away. Again, four mistakes you lose, but if you want to know the answers without failing, either come here, or delete your web cookies and try again. If you want to play more puzzles, you can get an NYT Games subscription to access the full archives of all past puzzles.
What Are Today’s Connections Hints For Sunday, August 10th?
These are the hints that are laid out on the puzzle board itself, but after that, we will get into spoiler territory with some hints and eventually the answers. First, here are today’s Connections words:
- Aurora
- Linear
- Split
- Arial
- Arabesque
- Impact
- Aerial
- Volumetric
- Georgia
- Tiana
- Areal
- Roundoff
- Merida
- Verdana
- Ariel
- Angular
Hints for the Connections groups today are:
- 🟡Yellow group – Acrobatics
- 🔵Blue group – Typeset
- 🟢Green group – Damsels
- 🟣Purple group – Math
What Are Today’s Connections Groups?
Alright, the full spoilers follow here as we get into what the groups are today:
- 🟡Yellow group – Gymnastics moves
- 🔵Blue group – Fonts
- 🟢Green group – Disney Princesses
- 🟣Purple group – Geometry adjectives
What Are Today’s Connections Answers?
The full-on answers are below for each group, finally inserting the four words in each category. Spoilers follow if you do not want to get this far. The Connections answers are:
- 🟡Yellow group – Aerial, Arabesque, Roundoff, Split
- 🔵Blue group – Arial, Georgia, Impact, Verdana
- 🟢Green group – Ariel, Aurora, Merida, Tiana
- 🟣Purple group – Angular, Areal, Linear, Volumetric
Today’s Connections
Screenshot: Erik Kain
The first thing I noticed about today’s Connections were the four similar words: AERIAL, ARIAL, ARIEL and AREAL. This is both something to confound us and a pretty big clue. For one thing, a smart assumption would be that each one belongs to a different group, and this can clue us in to what each group’s theme is.
The second thing I noticed was the word MERIDA, which I knew was the princess from the movie Brave. Of course, ARIEL is also a princess – a Little Mermaid, in fact – and look, there’s TIANA from The Princess and the Frog. From here, it was simple enough to find the last Disney Princess: Aurora, from Sleeping Beauty.
With the Green Group out of the way, I looked for my next ARIAL, which is a font. If you write a lot, you know your fonts. This was still one that I messed up on. I plugged in GEORGIA, VERDANA and ARABESQUE. That wasn’t quite right (though ARABESQUE is a font, actually). I replaced it with IMPACT and that was the Blue Group.
I know had AERIAL and AREAL left. I noticed other words that had to do with space: LINEAR, ANGULAR, VOLUMETRIC. These were all describing the types of things you’d calculate in geometry, and sure enough the Purple Group was Geometry Adjectives.
Well, with three out of the way in this game, you don’t have to work for the fourth (hence my argument for some changes to the game). I already suspected that AERIAL and ARABESQUE were types of dances or something similar, and ROUNDOFF and SPLIT grouped with these to form Gymnastics Moves. Ironically, the “easy” Yellow Group was the one that I had the hardest time putting together. How did you do?
Find more guides to Wordle, Strands and the Mini Crossword on my blog where you can also follow me for TV and movie and video game coverage. Read my weekend streaming guide right here.
