Note : Make sure to complete today’s NYT Connections before reading further! We’ll be getting into spoilers for today’s game pretty quickly. If you need some help to complete the grid, you can find my NYT Connections hints and answers column for today right here :

Hey there, Connectors! Welcome to my deeper dive into today’s Connections answers. The idea behind this is to help clear things up for anyone who isn’t sure how today’s groups fit together.

If I’ve missed any red herrings or misunderstood something, let me know via email or on Discord . I don’t typically look at X or check the comments here.

I’m going to assume that you’ve already beaten today’s game. We’re going straight into spoiler territory here. So, consider this your one and only warning .

Here are today’s NYT Connections answers explained (and any red herrings I spot) for Friday, July 31:

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Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase

Today’s NYT Connections Answers Explained

Connections – Yellow Group

🟨 construct (FASHION, MODEL, MOLD, SHAPE)

Straightforward enough here, thanks to the category title.

Connections – Green Group

🟩 Super Mario figures (DINOSAUR, MUSHROOM, PLUMBER, PRINCESS)

  • MUSHROOM > Toad (or Toadette). Mushrooms are also power-ups in many Mario games
  • PLUMBER > it’s a-he, Mario (or Luigi)
  • PRINCESS > Peach (or Daisy)

🟦 fruits plus starting letter (DAPPLE, JDATE, SLIME, SPEAR)

  • DAPPLE > apple
  • JDATE > date
  • SLIME > lime
  • SPEAR > pear

JDATE is a dating app that primarily serves Jewish people.

Connections – Purple Group

🟪 starting with merriments (CHEERIOS, FUNGUS, GLEEK, JOYSTICK)

  • CHEERIOS > cheer
  • FUNGUS > fun
  • GLEEK > glee
  • JOYSTICK > joy

Connections – Red Herrings

FASHION and MODEL could have gone together, as could JOYSTICK and MUSHROOM, which can both have bulbous heads.

Today’s main red herring was probably MOLD, MUSHROOM, SLIME and FUNGUS. Ick.

If you’d like to chat about today’s game of Connections and just about anything else with me and a very lovely group of people, you can do just that in our Discord community . We’d love for you to hang out with us.

I’ll be back with another set of NYT Connections hints and answers on Monday, as well as another edition of this one, all going well. You’ll be able to find both of those on my Forbes author page when the time comes (following me there helps me out too!). As for the weekend editions of my NYT Connections hints and answers column, I’m currently doing that via my newsletter, Pastimes .