NYT Connections today — hints and answers for Wednesday, September 4 (game #451)

Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need clues.

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 #451) - today's words

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• CATER
• BOWL
• THROW
• STAR
• CARET
• TRACE
• CRATE
• HASH
• SHRED
• BED
• BRACE
• TOUCH
• PLAN
• HINT
• COLLAR
• HOST

NYT Connections today (game #451) - hint #1 - group hints

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

• Yellow: Just a little
• Green: Doggy must-haves
• Blue: Celebration time
• Purple: Look down while you're typing

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 #451) - hint #2 - group answers

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

• YELLOW: VERY SMALL AMOUNT
• GREEN: PUPPY PURCHASES
• BLUE: HELP PUT ON A PARTY
• PURPLE: SYMBOLS ON A KEYBOARD

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

NYT Connections today (game #451) - the answers

The answers to today's Connections, game #451, are…

• YELLOW: VERY SMALL AMOUNT HINT, SHRED, TOUCH, TRACE
• GREEN: PUPPY PURCHASES BED, BOWL, COLLAR, CRATE
• BLUE: HELP PUT ON A PARTY CATER, HOST, PLAN, THROW
• PURPLE: SYMBOLS ON A KEYBOARD BRACE, CARET, HASH, STAR

• My rating: Moderate
• My score: Fail

The only thing more frustrating than failing at Connections is failing at Connections when you already solved two of the groups. That was the situation I was in today: I only had eight words to choose from, and all four guesses remaining, so surely I'd be able to combine them into two sets? But no.

To make matters worse, one of those groups was the yellow one, supposedly the easiest. But for some reason my brain wouldn't (or couldn't) assemble HINT, SHRED, TOUCH and TRACE into a group meaning VERY SMALL AMOUNT. Was that a big failing on my part? I guess so – they do all mean that, in certain contexts, after all – but it seems like an overly tricky answer for yellow.

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

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Tuesday, 3 September, game #450)

• YELLOW: ABSOLVE EXCUSE, PARDON, SAVE, SPARE
• GREEN: EXCESSIVELY BEYOND, EXTRA, OVER, TOO
• BLUE: GLOBAL CURRENCIES POUND, REAL, WON, YEN
• PURPLE: ___HEAD ARROW, BLOCK, FORE, KNUCKLE

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.