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 Monday, August 3:

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Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase

Today’s NYT Connections Answers Explained

Connections – Yellow Group

🟨 road less traveled (ALLEY, BACKSTREET, BYWAY, LANE)

I do like the category title here. These all refer to roads that are not main roads. Like side streets, they’re probably not the fastest way to get to your destination, but they probably won’t have as much traffic.

Connections – Green Group

🟩 shades of green (FOREST, HUNTER, MINT, SAGE)

FOREST green is a dark shade that’s similar to forest vegetation. By way of example, here’s a nice picture of forest trees:

HUNTER was the one that tripped me up here. It’s a dark, slightly yellow shade of green.

MINT green is a cooler, lighter shade. Like you’d see in mint choc chip ice cream. Mmmm, ice cream:

As for SAGE, that’s a grey-ish shade of green similar in color to dried sage leaves, weirdly enough.

🟦 "Y" is the only vowel (FLY BY, MYRRH, NSYNC, RHYTHM)

I think the category title takes care of things for us here. A slightly sneaky group here, since we have a few other words with “Y” in them in today’s game.

Connections – Purple Group

🟪 starting with synonyms for "pester" (BUG FIX, NAG CHAMPA, NEEDLESS, TEA SET)

  • BUG FIX > bug
  • NAG CHAMPA > nag
  • NEEDLESS > need
  • TEA SET > tease (I really like that one. Very sneaky!)

In case you’re wondering – I sure was – NAG CHAMPA is a fragrance of Indian origin. Wikipedia says it’s made with sandalwood and either champak or frangipani.

Connections – Red Herrings

The only sort of red herring I saw was BACKSTREET and NSYNC, references to two boy bands. The former doesn’t include the full name of Backstreet Boys, though.

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 tomorrow, 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 .