Today's NYT Connections hints and answers — Sunday, July 14, #399

1. Today's hints

2. Today's answer

3. Yesterday's answer

Looking for today's Connections answers? The Connections answers on July 14 for puzzle #399 is slightly harder than yesterday's answers, with the Connections Companion rating this puzzle's difficulty at 2.6 out of 5.

Every day, we update this article with Connections hints and tips to help you find all 4 of today's answers. And if the hints aren't enough, you'll find all 4 answers below, with the category titles and the correlating words. Plus, we're including a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #398, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.

Spoilers lie ahead for Connections #399. Only read on if you want to know today's Connections answers.

Alternatively, visit our how to play NYT Connections guide for tips on how to solve the puzzle without our help.

Today's Connections answer — hints to help you solve it

Unlike our guide to today's Wordle answer , where we recommend the best Wordle start words as your strategy, solving Connections relies on identifying connecting categories among 16 words. Each category's difficulty level is represented by a color; yellow is the easiest grouping, and purple is the most challenging. Once you've made 4 mistakes in your guesses, the answers will be revealed, so hints can be helpful.

If you need hints to solve the groupings, then here are the themes of each, based on the order of difficulty:

• 🟨 Yellow : Slender projections
• 🟩 Green : Conditions for collectibles
• 🟦 Blue : Profession
• 🟪 Purple : Words before "nut"

These hints should get you at least some of the way towards finding today's Connections answers. If not, then you can read on for bigger clues; or, if you just want to know the answer, then scroll down further.

Here's a larger hint: Today's puzzle is all about playing your cards right and climbing the corporate ladder — just be sure to get right to the point before your stomach starts growling.

Today's Connections answers

So, what are today's Connections answers for game #399?

Drumroll, please...

• 🟨 Slender projections: Point, prong, tine, tip
• 🟩 Conditions for collectibles: Fair, fine, good, mint
• 🟦 Profession: Business, field, line, trade
• 🟪 Words before "Nut": Brazil, butter, dough, pine

Today's puzzle was a breeze. I kicked things off by getting the purple category: At first, I thought Mint and Dough might be related, as they're both slang for money, but something about seeing Brazil and Pine near each other made me realize the connection instantly.

The green category was a little tricky only because I had to run to the dictionary to figure out what Tine meant. Not only did that add a new word to my vocabulary, but it made the connection to Prong and Tip painfully clear. And while Point could have several different meanings (especially given today's business-y blue category), it was the only option left even close to the others.

Blue came next, as chewing over the word Business made me think of line of work, which made Line pop out followed by Field and Trade.

With only four words left, the green category became a rote fill, but I was kicking myself for not realizing the connection sooner. I spent enough time wheeling and dealing over Pokemon cards growing up to recognize they were all terms for grades of collectibles.

Yesterday's Connections answers

Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Connections answers for game #398, which had a difficulty rating of 2.5 out of 5, according to the Connections Companion .

After the last few days of "school" based shenanigans, it was a weekend relief to not see that word anywhere near yesterday's puzzle.

This puzzle was still a disappointment though, mostly because I prefer to find connections between things and not concepts.

I found the green category first with avatar, character and person flying in fast. It took a moment to find figure but that capped the color.

While I was putting green together, I partially saw the beginning of the blue category with appear and look. It was a matter of finding seem and sound after that.

Part of my personal disappointment with the puzzle was wanting it to be something it wasn't. I got a bit excited when I saw Giant and Monster and wanted the puzzle to have more mythological creature connections.  It was one of those, I didn't want to admit that mammoth and titanic were related.

I never submitted it, but I did have giant, witch, castle and monster as a category. This would have been preferable. Instead, we get silent "T". Ugh.