If you’re looking for the August 23 Connections hints and answers, we’ve got you covered right here .

Hey there, Connectors! I hope you had a marvelous weekend. I’m happy to be back here with you for another weekday run of this column.

As ever, we’ll get things started on this midsummer (or winter!) Monday with a fun, upbeat song. The idea is to help you start the week on a positive note.

I could probably slot in a different Carly Rae Jepsen song here every Monday for months, to be honest. She released new song “Motivation” last week. It’s a house track with a cute video and lyrics:

Before we start, we’ve got a lovely community on Discord , where we chat about Connections , the rest of the NYT games and all kinds of things. You’re more than welcome to join us!

Also, my weekend editions of this column are available over on my newsletter, Pastimes . I sometimes write about other things that are on my mind there as well.

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Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase

Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Monday, August 24 are coming right up. Let’s get rolling!

Connections is a free New York Times daily word game that you can play on the NYT ’s website or Games app. If you have an NYT All Access or Games subscription, you can access the Connections archive, which includes every previous game.

Connections presents you with a grid of 16 words (sometimes phrases, symbols or numbers). The aim is to arrange them into four groups of four. You don’t know how they hit together or what the category for each group is: that’s what you have to figure out.

There’s only one correct solution and there are often red herrings. You can guess incorrectly three times. A fourth wrong guess, and it’s game over.

Each group is color coded. The yellow group is usually the easiest to deduce, followed by green, blue and purple. Often, the yellow and green groups have synonyms, the blues have cultural references and the purples have some kind of wordplay involved. But this is not a hard and fast rule. Be ready for curveballs – part of the fun of Connections is in how the NYT shakes things up to keep you on your toes.

As with Wordle and similar games, it’s easy to share results with your friends using an emoji-based grid. The game tracks your progress too.

Many players take pride in having long win streaks or getting a reverse rainbow – correctly guessing the purple, blue, green and yellow groups in that order with no mistakes. That adds an extra little challenge.

Today’s NYT Connections Word List

After today’s Connections word list, I’ll give you a hint for each category. After that, I’ll reveal one word that goes into each group. Then I’ll reveal the categories, followed by the full answers.

  • SOLE
  • DESERVE
  • MAIN
  • EYELET
  • HEEL
  • PRIME
  • EX-LOVE
  • ARCH
  • MULLET
  • KAYFABE
  • BESET
  • PIKE
  • FACE
  • TANG
  • CHIEF
  • JOBBER

Today’s NYT Connections Hints

The hints for today’s Connections categories are:

  • 🟨 Yellow group — like oscar, zander and bass
  • 🟩 Green group — head of the table
  • 🟦 Blue group — after you pin these down, you might need to take a breather on a steel chair
  • 🟪 Purple group — you might cause a racket when you see what this group is

One Answer For Each NYT Connections Group

Be warned: we’re starting to get into spoiler territory.

Let’s take a look at one answer for each group.

  • 🟨 Yellow group — TANG
  • 🟩 Green group — CHIEF
  • 🟦 Blue group — HEEL
  • 🟪 Purple group — DESERVE

Today’s NYT Connections Categories

Today’s Connections groups are...

  • 🟨 Yellow group — fish
  • 🟩 Green group — principal
  • 🟦 Blue group — pro-wrestling lingo
  • 🟪 Purple group — letter homophone plus tennis term

Today’s NYT Connections Answer

Spoiler alert! Don’t scroll any further down the page until you’re ready to find out today’s Connections answers.

This is your last chance to look away.

This is your final warning!

Today’s Connections answers are...

  • 🟨 Yellow group — fish (MULLET, PIKE, SOLE, TANG)
  • 🟩 Green group — principal (ARCH, CHIEF, MAIN, PRIME)
  • 🟦 Blue group — pro-wrestling lingo (FACE, HEEL, JOBBER, KAYFABE)
  • 🟪 Purple group — letter homophone plus tennis term (BESET, DESERVE, EX-LOVE, EYELET)

I wasn’t totally sure it would be a group, especially since HEEL could have easily gone with a "parts of a shoe" group, which I’m sure we’ve had before anyway. But there’s no way I wasn’t going to immediately guess a group of pro wrestling terms. I was delighted to see that those were actually the blues.

The yellows were next. No problem there.

What had to be the greens then seemed clear enough, so I had to slide through what I thought were the purples first. Didn't know what that category was immediately, and I was just so happy about the blues, I didn't care to try to figure it out (not that I would have). The greens wrapped things up.

How did you get on this time? Here's my grid:

Want to know more about how everything fits together? Let’s explore today’s game in more depth in my NYT Connections Answers Explained column. You can check that out by visiting my author page .

Be sure to check my blog for hints and the answer for tomorrow’s game of Connections if you need them.

P.S. I feel like I can go with a wrestling theme today. This is one of my favorites of the last several years. Kenny Omega’s theme – “Battle Cry” by Little V – is cheesy as heck, but it’s full of energy and it’s super fun. I enjoyed reading the story behind the song too:

Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Be kind to yourself and each other! Call someone you love!

Please follow my blog for more NYT Connections hints and help with other word games, and even some video game news, insights and analysis. I’d really appreciate that as it helps me out. If you share this column with others who play Connections, that would be lovely too. You can also read my weekend editions of this column and more of my writing at my newsletter, Pastimes .