NYT Connections Answers Today (August 5): Underground Rides, Snowman Props, & Secret Codes, Today's Puzzle Had It All

NYT Connections Answers: If you felt like Tuesday’s Connections puzzle was messing with your head, you weren’t alone. Puzzle #785, released on August 5 by The New York Times, gave solvers a mix of travel clues, kitchen actions, wintry décor, and... well, secretive vocabulary. Whether you cracked it or cried “Game Over” after four wrong guesses, here’s a breakdown of what today’s game looked like.

16 Words, 4 Tricky Categories

As always, players were presented with a grid of 16 seemingly unrelated words:

Dress, Scarf, Subway, Grate, Pipe, Tube, Cube, Zip, Health, Carrot, Underground, Secret, Metro, Mince, Coal, Slice

At first glance, some obvious links start to form, Metro, Subway, Underground, but red herrings abound. That’s part of the Connections charm. It’s not just about spotting common words, it’s about decoding the hidden themes that link exactly four words together.

But once you lock in a group, the real magic begins.

Today's Connections Themes

According to the official Connections reveal, today’s puzzle had the following themes:

Yellow (Easiest): Subterranean Transit
Metro, Subway, Tube, Underground

Green: Make Into Smaller Pieces While Cooking
Cube, Grate, Mince, Slice

Blue: Used To Decorate A Snowman
Carrot, Coal, Pipe, Scarf

Purple (Hardest): ___ Code
Dress, Health, Secret, Zip

That last group, Purple, is always the toughest to crack, and today’s was no exception. It required lateral thinking: Dress Code, Health Code, Secret Code, Zip Code. Not one of them is an obvious giveaway, especially when words like Dress and Zip could easily distract players into forming false connections.

What Makes Connections So Addictive?

Part of the appeal lies in its deceptive simplicity. The game looks easy, just group words together. But with cleverly planted red herrings and multiple plausible groupings, it becomes a true test of intuition and logic.

“Some days the words just click together, and some days, they don't,” the official Connections guide notes. “Luckily, our Connections guides are always there to help.”

The puzzle also uses colour coding to denote difficulty, Yellow being the simplest, Green fairly straightforward, Blue moderately tricky, and Purple the head-scratcher. That structure helps players feel a sense of progression, even when they’re stuck.

If you’re brave enough to try your hand at the next one, you can head to The New York Times’ Connections page. But be warned: one slip-up, and you’re three wrong guesses away from watching the whole puzzle unravel before your eyes.

And if you ever need a gentle nudge (or a full solution), there’s always a guide to steer you through.

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