NYT Connections today — hints and answers for Thursday, August 1 (game #417)

It's the start of a new month, but the same old Connections we've come to know and love. Today's is moderately tough, so take advantage of my hints 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.

NYT Connections today (game #417) - today's words

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• FLING
• ROMANCE
• TUBE
• CHUCK
• CAST
• CREW
• PITCH
• SWEAT
• TRAVEL
• MARKET
• HYPE
• FICTION
• SELL
• HUMOR
• ANKLE
• HURL

NYT Connections today (game #417) - hint #1 - group hints

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

• Yellow: Tell the world about it
• Green: A baseball player needs to do this
• Blue: Keen readers will know these
• Purple: Blank [item of clothing]

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 #417) - hint #2 - group answers

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

• YELLOW: PROMOTE
• GREEN: THROW
• BLUE: BOOKSTORE SECTIONS
• PURPLE: ___ SOCKS

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

NYT Connections today (game #417) - the answers

The answers to today's Connections, game #417, are…

• YELLOW: PROMOTE HYPE, MARKET, PITCH, SELL
• GREEN: THROW CAST, CHUCK, FLING, HURL
• BLUE: BOOKSTORE SECTIONS FICTION, HUMOR, ROMANCE, TRAVEL
• PURPLE: ___ SOCKS ANKLE, CREW, SWEAT, TUBE

• My rating: Moderate
• My score: Perfect

I'm not entirely sure why I found it do difficult to solve the final two groups here, because the blue 'bookstore sections' group was really quite simple in hindsight. But I got stuck on genres of books, rather than thinking 'bookstore sections', and decided that as ROMANCE and HUMOR are usually types of FICTION, the latter word wouldn't be included in the group alongside them.

As is often the case, I was overthinking it – which is a shame, as the game had been going well until then. Fortunately, I eventually spotted the [blank] socks group instead, so was able to solve the book-related answer by default.

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

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Wednesday, 31 July, game #416)

• YELLOW: RASPY GRUFF, HOARSE, HUSKY, ROUGH
• GREEN: FINGERS LITTLE, MIDDLE, POINTER, RING
• BLUE: ALE STYLES AMBER, PORTER, SOUR, STOUT
• PURPLE: FRENCH ___ BULLDOG, FRY, HORN, KISS

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.