Looking for clues for today's Connections answers? The Connections answers on September 1 for puzzle #813 are a little harder than yesterday's puzzle, with the Connections Companion rating this puzzle's difficulty at 3.5 out of 5.
Every day, we update this article with Connections hints and tips to help you find all 4 of today's answers so you can keep your Connections streak going. And if the clues aren't enough, you'll find all four answers below, with the category titles and the correlating words.
Plus, we're including a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #812, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.
Spoilers lie ahead for Connections #813. Only read on if you want to know today's Connections answers.
Alternatively, visit our how to play NYT Connections guide for tips on how to solve the puzzle without our help.
Today's Connections answer — hints to help you solve it
Unlike our guide to today's Wordle answer, where we recommend the best Wordle start words as your strategy, solving Connections relies on identifying connecting categories among 16 words. Each category's difficulty level is represented by a color; yellow is the easiest grouping, and purple is the most challenging. Once you've made 4 mistakes in your guesses, the answers will be revealed, so hints can be helpful.
Today's Connections words are: President, Mother, Bishop, Bird, Clergy Member, Premiere, M.L.B. Player, Pope, Saint Valentine, Introduction, N.F.L. Player, Lorde, Launch, Burns, Saint Patrick, and Debut
If you need hints to solve the groupings, then here are the themes of each, based on the order of difficulty:
- 🟨 Yellow: First appearance
- 🟩 Green: Ones celebrated with holidays
- 🟦 Blue: Famous poets
- 🟪 Purple: What 'cardinal' might refer to
These hints should get you at least some of the way towards finding today's Connections answers. If not, then you can read on for bigger clues; or, if you just want to know the answer, then scroll down further.
Here's a larger hint: Go bird-watching with a book of poetry to celebrate the holiday weekend.
Today's Connections answers
So, what are today's Connections answers for game #813?
Drumroll, please...
- 🟨 First appearance: Debut, Introduction, Launch, Premiere
- 🟩 Ones celebrated with holidays: Mother, President, Saint Patrick, Saint Valentine
- 🟦 Famous poets: Bishop, Burns, Lorde, Pope
- 🟪 What 'cardinal' might refer to: Bird, Clergy Member, M.L.B. Player, N.F.L. Player
Today's Connections puzzle was even trickier than yesterday's despite being rated easier. I struck out trying to connect all the church-related titles, so I thought Saint Patrick and Saint Valentine just had to be the holidays, right? After a quick look around, I spotted Mother and President to solve the green category.
I spotted yellow next, the easiest by a country mile today, with Debut, Introduction, Launch and Premiere.
I was scratching my head for a while with the remaining clues, but then I remembered all the cardinals I see every time I visit my in-laws in Louisville, and that got me thinking about sports and another meaning for one of the only remaining church-related clues, Clergy Member. I tried Bird, M.L.B. Player, and N.F.L. Player and cinched the purple category.
That left blue as today's rote fill with Bishop, Burns, Lorde, and Pope. I'll have to brush up on my poetry, because I only recognized three out of four of those names (I thought they meant the singer Lorde).
Yesterday's Connections answers
- 🟨 Criticize harshly: Bash, Blast, Flame, Roast
- 🟩 Common components of board games: Board, Cards, Dice, Pieces
- 🟦 Heteronyms: Axes, Bass, Coordinate, Does
- 🟪 ____ sticks: Chop, Drum, Fiddle, Fish
Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Connections answers for game #812, which had a difficulty rating of 3.3 out of 5, according to the Connections Companion.
I went down the line today. As someone who writes about tech and video games on the internet, I've seen more than my fair share of trolls. So it's little wonder that the yellow category immediately jumped out at me with Bash, Blast, Flame, and Roast.
The clues Cards and Dice ended up near one another, and that got me thinking of board game nights, so I went hunting for other potential clues to that end. Once I found Board, I knew I was on the right track, and I rounded out the green category with Pieces.
That got me thinking of BBQs and fish fries and other summer hangouts, so I figured I'd try to find where Fish went on the board next. It wasn't long before I recognized another food item (or rather the first half of one) with Drum, and then I started searching for any other clues that formed words with "stick." Chop and Fiddle were the last two to seal the purple category.
That left only blue with Axes, Bass, Coordinate, and Does. I didn't know what a heteronym was before, but now I (kinda) do!
Connections tips — how to win at Connections
There are two ways to play Connections, get the answers as you solve them or solve for the hardest group, Purple, first.
For either playstyle, the best tip I can give is to not be afraid of the shuffle button, especially if you’ve solved a set but you’re certain it isn’t the Purple group. You can shuffle the grid until your solved quartet is in a somewhat staked off area.
For the purple group, you can expect to see a handful of category types: words missing a letter, homophones, words with specific suffixes or prefixes, and [blank] word (or word [blank]). There are others but this is a majority of what you’ll see. It can help to look for purple connections through one of those lenses.
If you’re not hunting for purple specifically, then the best advice I have is to look for smaller connections. For example, Riddler and Joker are Batman villains. Once you’ve grouped that duo together it’s easier to find another set.
Finally, watch out for traps. Occasionally, the Connections makers like to throw in a set of words that should seem very obvious to most people. But picking them can give you a strike, something you want to save for when you aren’t really sure between a couple of clues.
The tricky bit is that sometimes the very obvious foursome is actually one of the answers (usually the yellow or green levels).
One way to work around this is to note the four clues you think are an obvious set. Highlight them by selecting the words but don’t hit submit. From there take a second look around the grid to see if anything else stands out to you.
Often these super obvious sets are actually individually spread out between the four groups. So, if you see Wick, Neo, Ted and Mnemonic, you might immediately think of Keanu Reeves movies, but it's a trick. Instead, use the individual words as launching points to discover other connections.
If you're new to the game you should also take a look at our How to play Connections guide.
Got some thoughts about today's puzzle you want to share? Email us at scott.younker@futurenet.com or alyse.stanley@futurenet.com to get in touch.
