NYT Connections today — hints and answers for Monday, August 5 (game #421)

NYT Connections homescreen on a phone, on a purple background
(Image credit: New York Times)

Why not start the week with a game of the NYT's Connections word game? It's usually difficult, always good fun, and there are hints for it below if you need them.

What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Wordle hints and answers, Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

Your Connections expert
Marc McLaren
Your Connections expert
Marc McLaren

Marc is TechRadar’s Global Editor in Chief and has been obsessed with Wordle and its ilk for more than two years. He's authored dozens of articles on the game for TechRadar, including a daily today's Wordle answer column and a detailed analysis of the most common letters in Wordle in every position. He's also played every Wordle ever and only lost once and yes, he takes it all too seriously.

NYT Connections today (game #421) - today's words

NYT Connections hints for game 421 on a purple background

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

  • BIRTHDAY
  • CANDY
  • GET IT
  • THANK YOU
  • CONTACT
  • WITNESS
  • HACK IT
  • SEE
  • SHADOW
  • MAKE DO
  • GET WELL
  • UNDERSTAND
  • MANAGE
  • CAPISCE
  • GET BY
  • CONGRATULATIONS

NYT Connections today (game #421) - hint #1 - group hints

What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?

  • Yellow: You'll be OK
  • Green: Dear…
  • Blue: Follow me?
  • Purple: 'optical organ' blank

Need more clues?

We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…

NYT Connections today (game #421) - hint #2 - group answers

What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?

  • YELLOW: SURVIVE
  • GREEN: KINDS OF GREETING CARDS
  • BLUE: ARE WE CLEAR?
  • PURPLE: WORDS AFTER “EYE”

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Connections today (game #421) - the answers

NYT Connections answers for game 421 on a purple background

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #421, are…

  • YELLOW: SURVIVE GET BY, HACK IT, MAKE DO, MANAGE
  • GREEN: KINDS OF GREETING CARDS BIRTHDAY, CONGRATULATIONS, GET WELL, THANK YOU
  • BLUE: ARE WE CLEAR? CAPISCE, GET IT, SEE, UNDERSTAND
  • PURPLE: WORDS AFTER “EYE” CANDY, CONTACT, SHADOW, WITNESS

  • My rating: Easy
  • My score: Perfect

Today's Connections is a surprisingly uncomplicated one. Three of the groups are really obvious and only the purple 'words after "eye"' one is truly challenging. But there's a good chance you won't need to worry about solving that one anyway.

The pivotal group is probably blue, because that's the second most difficult. However, the presence in that group of CAPISCE makes it easier, because there's not really many ways that word can be used. Once you spotted the likes of UNDERSTAND it will have been clear what that group was, meaning you'll have been left with purple to solve by default with no brain power required.

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.


Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Sunday, 4 August, game #420)

  • YELLOW: KIDDO BUDDY, CHAMP, SPORT, TIGER
  • GREEN: UP FOR IT AMENABLE, DOWN, GAME, WILLING
  • BLUE: BEGINNING WITH DOUBLE LETTERS AARDVARK, EERIE, LLAMA, OOZE
  • PURPLE: NICKNAMES FOR THE SEA, WITH “THE” BLUE, BRINY, DEEP, DRINK

What is NYT Connections?

NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.

On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.

It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.

It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

TOPICS
Marc McLaren
Global Editor in Chief

Marc is TechRadar’s Global Editor in Chief, the latest in a long line of senior editorial roles he’s held in a career that started the week that Google launched (nice of them to mark the occasion). Prior to joining TR, he was UK Editor in Chief on Tom’s Guide, where he oversaw all gaming, streaming, audio, TV, entertainment, how-to and cameras coverage. He's also a former editor of the tech website Stuff and spent five years at the music magazine NME, where his duties mainly involved spoiling other people’s fun. He’s based in London, and has tested and written about phones, tablets, wearables, streaming boxes, smart home devices, Bluetooth speakers, headphones, games, TVs, cameras and pretty much every other type of gadget you can think of. An avid photographer, Marc likes nothing better than taking pictures of very small things (bugs, his daughters) or very big things (distant galaxies). He also enjoys live music, gaming, cycling, and beating Wordle (he authors the daily Wordle today page).