Today’s Connections Hints (and Answer) for Thursday, August 31

If you’re looking for the Connections answer for Thursday, August 31, 2023, read on—I’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solutions to all four categories. Beware, there are spoilers below for August 31, NYT Connections #81! Scroll to the end if you want some hints (and then the answer) to today’s Connections game.

How to play Connections

I have a full guide to playing Connections, but here’s a refresher on the rules:

First, find the Connections game either on the New York Times website or in their Crossword app. You’ll see a game board with 16 tiles, each with one word or phrase. Your job is to select a group of four tiles that have something in common. Often they are all the same type of thing (for example: RAIN, SLEET, HAIL, and SNOW are all types of wet weather) but sometimes there is wordplay involved (for example, BUCKET, GUEST, TOP TEN, and WISH are all types of lists: bucket list, guest list, and so on).

Select four items and hit the Submit button. If you guessed correctly, the category and color will be revealed. (Yellow is easiest, followed by green, then blue, then purple.) If your guess was incorrect, you’ll get a chance to try again.

You win when you’ve correctly identified all four groups. But if you make four mistakes before you finish, the game ends and the answers are revealed.

How to win Connections

The most important thing to know to win Connections is that the groupings are designed to be tricky. Expect to see overlapping groups. For example, one puzzle seemed to include six breakfast foods: BACON, EGG, PANCAKE, OMELET, WAFFLE, and CEREAL. But BACON turned out to be part of a group of painters along with CLOSE, MUNCH, and WHISTLER, and EGG was in a group of things that come by the dozen (along with JUROR, ROSE, and MONTH). So don’t hit “submit” until you’ve confirmed that your group of four contains only those four things.

If you’re stuck, another strategy is to look at the words that seem to have no connection to the others. If all that comes to mind when you see WHISTLER is the painting nicknamed “Whistler’s Mother,” you might be on to something. When I solved that one, I ended up googling whether there was a painter named Close, because Close didn’t fit any of the obvious themes, either.

Another way to win when you’re stuck is, obviously, to read a few helpful hints. Below, I’ll give you some oblique hints at today’s Connections answers. And further down the page, I’ll reveal the themes and the answers. Scroll slowly and take just the hints you need!

Does today’s Connections game require any special knowledge?

Nope, these are all pretty straightforward, common words. Maybe it would help if I said that a jalapeño POPPER is a fried pepper filled with cheese, but you probably knew that. (In which case, why not try our own Allie Reinmann’s charcuterie-board-friendly riff on the classic?)

Hints for the themes in today’s Connections puzzle

Here are some spoiler-free hints for the groupings in today’s Connections:

Does today’s Connections game involve any wordplay?

Besides the usual funny business (in which a word might work in one category as a noun and another as a verb, perhaps), there is a category that’s a little more tricky. This one is purple, as you’d expect, and it’s a fill-in-the-blank. That is, each of the four words is part of a two-word phrase: “____ [something]”. The “[something]” is the same for all four words.

If that doesn’t make a lot of sense, well, just go ahead and solve the rest, and see what’s left. You’ll see what I mean.

BEWARE: Spoilers and answers follow for today’s Connections puzzle!

Ready to learn the answers to today’s Connections puzzle? I give them all away below.

What are the yellow words in today’s Connections?

The yellow grouping is considered to be the most straightforward. The theme for today’s yellow group is APPETIZER UNIT and the words are: FRY, NACHO, POPPER, WING.

What are the green words in today’s Connections?

The green grouping is supposed to be the second-easiest. The theme for today’s green category is RESPONSE TO A CORRECT ANSWER and the words are: BINGO, CORRECT, RIGHT, YES.

What are the blue words in today’s Connections?

The blue grouping is the second-hardest. The theme for today’s blue category is MAR and the words are: CHIP, DING, NICK, SCRATCH.

What are the purple words in today’s Connections?

The purple grouping is considered to be the hardest. The theme for today’s purple category is “____ JACK” and the words are: APPLE, CRACKER, FLAP, LUMBER. Applejack is a hard liquor made by distilling (or freezing) apple cider; it’s also an apple-flavored cereal. Crackerjack is a phrase indicating great skill, or the popcorn-and-peanut treat traditionally sold at baseball games. Flapjacks are either pancakes or, if you’re in Europe, a snack like a granola bar. And a lumberjack is, of course, a person who cuts down trees for a living.

How I solved today’s Connections

I saw the “correct” answers first: DING, BINGO, YES, CORRECT. But then I saw RIGHT and realized I had too many for a group.

So I used my crutch of writing down possible groupings. There were a bunch of foods: APPLE, CHIP, CRACKER, WING, POPPER. I didn’t consider FRY here because I was thinking of it as a verb.

When I tried to make sense of NICK and SCRATCH I realized they could go together with DING and CHIP for a selection of reasons something might end up in a scratch-and-dent sale. That was the first group I submitted, and I got it right.

With DING out of my correct-answers group, I had four of those, so I submitted BINGO, YES, CORRECT, and RIGHT. Another hit there.

Down to the last eight, I realized that even though there were six foods (including APPLE and CRACKER), four of them were fried foods. (NACHOs aren’t fried, but they felt like they belonged.) FRY was the singular of fries, and the theme turned out to be appetizers in the singular.

Finally, I had that aha moment for the fill-in-the-blank: APPLEjack, CRACKERjack, LUMBERjack, FLAPjack. Bingo, yes, correct, I got them all right.