NYT Connections today hints and answers — Friday, August 16 (#432)

1. Today's hints

2. Today's answer

3. Yesterday's answer

Looking for today's Connections answers? The Connections answers on August 16 for puzzle #432 is barely a smidge harder than yesterday's answers, with the Connections Companion rating this puzzle's difficulty at 3.4 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, #431 in case you're reading this in a different time zone.

Spoilers lie ahead for Connections #432. 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 : Meh
• 🟩 Green : U.S. state abbreviations
• 🟦 Blue : Kinds of boots
• 🟪 Purple : Things that go up and down

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: Recall your postal codes while listening to some Nancy Sinatra. It's a fine puzzle with a little up and down.

Today's Connections answers

So, what are today's Connections answers for game #431?

Drumroll, please...

• 🟨 Meh: Average, fair, ok, so-so
• 🟩 U.S. State Abbreviations: HI, MA, OR, PA
• 🟦 Kinds of boots: Ankle, cowboy, go-go, thigh-high
• 🟪 Things that go up and down: Elevator, sun, tide, yo-yo

The last couple of days have had difficulties in the 3s, and for the most part they haven't felt any harder than previous days' 2s. That said, today's puzzle might make you pause as you work your way through its connections.

I clocked the yellow category early but skipped it to pursue the other ones. So, my first get was State abbreviations. HI (Hawaii), MA (Massachusetts), OR (Oregon) and PA (Pennsylvania). OK might make you think of Oklahoma but don't fall for that little trap.

Forgoing yellow again, I saw ankle and thigh-high and assumed it was another sock connections which we did last week. Fortunately, cowboy and go-go were easy spots.

Knowing the yellow category made getting purple easy as I popped elevator, sun, tide and yo-yo for things that go up and down. It works, I guess but I was left with a feeling of, so?

Then we wrapped it up with Meh, snagging average, fair, ok and so-so.

Again, this one didn't feel too hard or much harder than any other puzzle this week. If anything it Meh.

Yesterday's Connections answers

Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Connections answers for game #431, which had a difficulty rating of 3.2 out of 5, according to the Connections Companion .

I'll say that I took three strikes on this one but I think many will find this one easier than you think, despite the much higher difficulty rating.

Not sure what it says about me but I found the blue category first, spotting Sierra, Bud and Natty (which I think of more as Natty Ice) and then Stella.

I took my strikes here as I tried to put together the green category. I got stuck on Pal.

Sometimes when you struggle, it's best to pause on the category you're working on try somewhere else. I did that and quickly found the yellow category.

That was extent, range, reach and scope.

The purple category fell next as I ignored the green words I knew where correct. For me, the phrase 'hitting pay dirt' came to mind. It was an easy lift to find paycheck, pay pal and pay phone from there.

Finally, I had green with complement, match, mate and partner.