Today’s Connections Hints & Answers For July 28, 2024 (Puzzle #412)

There are a lot of different pillars to solving Connections, and these include the ability to know when a word doesn’t belong in a category and how to notice when the words seem extremely disconnected. There are a lot of different types of words in today’s puzzle, and working out which ones belong where can be a task. Not to fret, we have all the hints and answers you need to keep your streak alive.

If you like Connections you are sure to like the NYT Wordle puzzle as well. Instead of connecting words you will be connecting letters and finding the right solution. It is always a five-letter word, so as the list of words grows shorter the puzzle, in theory, gets a little easier as well.

Today’s Connections Category Hints

JULY 28 #412

The hardest part of Connections is figuring out what the different categories might be. Sometimes they are completely unexpected, but there are ways to attempt to make a close guess. We have some extra hints for you that might help narrow down these categories.

• One category is about a popular summer activity
• One category is not pirate-themed
• One category has main character energy
• One category is about different genres of the same medium

These categories are a bit hard to parse out but there are not a large amount of crossover words which makes them a little easier to figure out than others. We have all the category names for you if you still need a nudge.

	SPLASHY WAYS TO ENTER A POOL
	REITERATE
	MAINSTAY
	___ RADIO

Today’s Connections Answers

JULY 28 #412

Yellow Answers: Revealed & Explained

SPLASHY WAYS TO ENTER A POOL
BACKFLIP	BELLYFLOP	CANNONBALL	JACKKNIFE

If you want to make a big splash this summer, these moves are sure to be a big hit. BACKFLIPS are probably quite dangerous in most backyard pools, or that’s what mom always says, and I am not sure what a JACKKNIFE actually looks like, but most people are well aware of the BELLYFLOP and CANNONBALL.

Green Answers: Revealed & Explained

REITERATE
ECHO	PARROT	QUOTE	REPEAT

PARROT is the one that might fit elsewhere, given the later presence of ANCHOR and PIRATE. However, all three of these words actually ended up in separate categories. REPEAT and ECHO are what made me start to put this category together, and QUOTE got added in last. It was interesting to me that these were all lumped in together, as QUOTE seems different to my academic brain than a PARROT or ECHO of something else.

Related

NYT Mini Crossword: 8 Strategies To Solve It Fast

This tricky little five by five crossword isn’t always as easy as it looks; here are a couple easy tips and tricks to beat your friends’ times!

Blue Answers: Revealed & Explained

MAINSTAY
ANCHOR	BACKBONE	CORNERSTONE	PILLAR

ANCHOR being one of the few crossover words, this category might present some challenges, but seeing CORNERSTONE and PILLAR in the same puzzle at least got me thinking about architecture. While BACKBONE and ANCHOR are not architectural features, they both do hold what they connect to in place. Given that I like my spine where it is, that is a good thing.

Purple Answers: Revealed & Explained

___ RADIO
HAM	PIRATE	SATELLITE	TALK

With the last four words in the puzzle, it was nice and easy to click all four and submit them once I knew they had to be right. However, SATELLITE and TALK seemed to go together, because while they had some things in common with the REITERATE category, neither of them had that same sort of repetition-based meaning.

Other Games Like Connections

Once you have finished getting over that major disappointment, you can check out one of the word-based games listed below:

Connections

Released

June 12, 2023

Developer(s)

The New York Times Company

Publisher(s)

The New York Times Company

ESRB

Platform(s)

Web Browser , Mobile