The N+
1ew York Times Connections puzzle #738, released on June 18, 2025, challenges players to group 16 words into four themed categories, ranging from straightforward to delightfully tricky. Edited by Wyna Liu, this daily word game tests your ability to spot connections that vary from concrete to abstract, with today’s puzzle featuring a mix of accessible and complex groups. Below, we provide a complete breakdown of hints for each category, strategic advice for solving, and a clearly marked spoiler section with the full answers, ensuring you can tackle the puzzle at your preferred level of assistance. Let’s dive into the hints for puzzle #738!
Contents
How Connections Works
In Connections, you’re presented with a 4×4 grid of 16 words, and your goal is to sort them into four groups of four, each unified by a common theme. The groups are color-coded by difficulty:
- Yellow: Easiest, with a clear, often concrete connection.
- Green: Moderately challenging, requiring a bit more thought.
- Blue: Harder, often involving abstract or less obvious links.
- Purple: Toughest, typically featuring wordplay or cultural references.
You can make up to four incorrect guesses before the game ends. Correct groups are removed from the grid, revealing their theme and color. Today’s puzzle has been noted for its clever blue and purple groups, which may trip up even seasoned players. Let’s explore the hints to guide you through.
Hints for Puzzle #738
These hints are designed to help you identify each group without spoiling the answers outright. We’ll present them in order of difficulty (yellow to purple) with enough detail to spark recognition while preserving the challenge.
Yellow Group: Qualities of a Rainy Day
- Hint: Picture yourself outside during a downpour. What words describe the weather’s feel or look?
- Additional Clue: These are adjectives you’d use to paint a picture of a stormy, wet day—think about the sensory experience.
- Difficulty Note: This is the easiest group, as the words are common descriptors tied to a familiar scenario.
- Watch Out: One word might seem to overlap with an emotional or mood-related category, but focus on its weather-specific meaning.
Green Group: Squarely
- Hint: Think of words that suggest hitting something precisely, like landing a bullseye.
- Additional Clue: These terms describe actions or states done with exactness, often used in phrases about directness or accuracy.
- Difficulty Note: Moderately challenging, as the connection is less tangible than the yellow group and requires thinking about usage in context.
- Watch Out: Avoid confusing these with words about truth or correctness; the theme is about precision in placement or action.
Blue Group: Contents of a Pod
- Hint: Consider things that are contained within a “pod,” whether in nature, technology, or even sci-fi.
- Additional Clue: The pod could be a plant structure, a coffee machine component, a marine grouping, or a space vehicle. What’s inside each?
- Difficulty Note: This group is tricky because the pods come from diverse contexts, requiring you to identify a shared “contained” theme.
- Watch Out: Some words might seem to fit a food or tech category, so ensure they relate to a pod-like structure.
Purple Group: Body Part Plus a Starting Letter
- Hint: These words involve wordplay where a letter is added to a body part to form a new word with a different meaning.
- Additional Clue: Each word is a valid English term created by prefixing a specific letter to a body part, like adding a letter to “arm” to make something else.
- Difficulty Note: The hardest group, as it relies on recognizing both the body part and the resulting word, which may not seem related at first.
- Watch Out: The body parts aren’t always obvious, and the new words may have obscure meanings. Look for spelling patterns.
Strategies for Solving Puzzle #738
Today’s puzzle has some deceptive overlaps, particularly in the blue and purple groups, so here are tailored strategies to help you succeed:
- Begin with Yellow: Start by identifying the rainy day descriptors, as they’re the most intuitive. Grouping these first clears the grid and builds confidence.
- Spot the Wordplay for Purple: The purple group’s letter-plus-body-part pattern is unique. If a word feels out of place elsewhere, try mentally removing a starting letter to see if it reveals a body part.
- Think Broadly for Blue: The pod-related group spans multiple contexts (nature, tech, sci-fi). If you’re stuck, list different types of pods and what they might contain.
- Use the Shuffle Button: Rearranging the grid can break mental blocks and highlight new connections, especially for the green and blue groups.
- Test Carefully: With only four mistakes allowed, submit groups you’re confident in first. If you make an error, analyze why—did a word’s multiple meanings mislead you?
- Eliminate Red Herrings: Some words in the blue group might seem food- or tech-related. Verify they fit the “pod contents” theme before committing.
Community and Resources
Connections has a lively community where players share strategies and scores. Check out the Connections Companion on the New York Times website for June 18, 2025, to compare your solve or discuss tricky groups. Reddit’s r/NYTConnections is another great spot for tips and camaraderie. For additional hints, sites like NYT Connections Hints (https://nytconnectionshints.com/) offer daily clues without full spoilers, though be cautious of overly revealing content.
If you’re new or want to practice, the NYT Games app or website (subscription required) offers access to past puzzles. The Connections Bot provides post-game analysis, scoring your solve and tracking progress.
Spoiler Section: Full Answers for Puzzle #738
Warning: This section contains the complete answers for Connections puzzle #738. Only proceed if you’re ready for the solutions.
Here are the four groups, their themes, and the words, based on verified information for June 18, 2025:
- Yellow Group: Qualities of a Rainy Day
Words: COLD, GRAY, WET, WINDY
These adjectives capture the sensory experience of a stormy day, making this the easiest group to spot. - Green Group: Squarely
Words: DEAD, EXACTLY, RIGHT, SMACK
These terms relate to precision or directness, as in phrases like “dead on” or “smack in the center.” - Blue Group: Contents of a Pod
Words: ASTRONAUT, COFFEE, PEA, WHALE
Each word represents something found in a type of pod: a space capsule (astronaut), coffee pod, pea pod, or whale pod (group). - Purple Group: Body Part Plus a Starting Letter
Words: BARM, LEAR, RANKLE, SHIP
Each word is formed by adding a letter to a body part: B+ARM (barm, yeasty foam), L+EAR (lear, poetic term), R+ANKLE (rankle, to irritate), S+HIP (ship, a vessel).