NYT Connections hints today for #802: Clues and answers for Thursday, Aug. 21

Feeling stuck on today's New York Times Connections word game? I was too — it was actually pretty difficult. Since I've already solved it, I'll share some hints (and spoilers if you want them) to help you get through Thursday's puzzle: #802. Don't feel bad for taking a peek — these puzzles are designed to keep you guessing.

Since we're in this together, I'll share how I did each day. I felt really good after quickly solving yesterday's Connections puzzle, but this one humbled me. I almost ran out of mistakes — I had one left but I wasn't sure I was going to make it.

If you're new to NYT Connections, we've got some tips to help you along the way. Also, check out today's Wordle hints and answer.

How to play NYT Connections

NYT Connections is a surprisingly difficult word game and if you play, you're now considered a "connector." There are 16 words presented in a four-by-four grid and your goal is to match four words into their respective color-coded groups (yellow, green, blue, purple). Yellow is the easiest to guess while purple is the hardest.

Your job is to find out how the four words are connected to a specific group. For instance, in one recent puzzle, the blue group hint was "related to buying a home" and the words were appraisal, escrow, insurance and mortgage.

If you make a mistake when you submit, that's okay. You get four guesses before the game is over and the answers are revealed. You can also click on the lightbulb icon in the game to get some hints, but we'll also provide those here.

If you find yourself obsessed with this game after completing just one puzzle, I've got bad news for you. You can only play once a day. The timer resets each night at midnight.

Tips for playing NYT Connections

I only recently started playing Connections, but here are some tips I've found useful along the way.

1. When you get an answer wrong, pay attention to the text that appears at the top of the puzzle. "One away" means you only got one word wrong. Analyze each word to find one that might fit better in another group and try a new word.

2. If you're stuck, shuffle the board. You can shuffle as many times as you'd like to help you see some different word combinations.

3. Try to find the easy yellow group words first. Those words usually stick out because they have so much in common — they're often synonyms of one another. But be wary of the trick words that could fit into multiple categories.

4. Stumped? Come back to the puzzle later with a fresher mind. Trying to solve a difficult puzzle without "sleeping" on it might result in too many mistakes.

Today's NYT Connections hints

Check out these hints if you're having a hard time grouping them together.

I'll give you my own hints:

Yellow group: Mistake

Green group: What happens when you sleep or zone out

Blue group: Receivers or feelers

Purple group: When you're bored and drawing in class

Here's one word from each group:

Yellow group hint word: Flub

Green group hint word: La-la

Blue group hint word: Radio tower

Purple group hint word: Cheese

Okay, on to the official group names for a bigger hint. If you don't want to know what those are, then stop scrolling.

NYT Connections group names

Here are the group names for today's puzzle.

Yellow group: Blunder

Green group: Lands of the imagination

Blue group: Things with antenna/e

Purple group: ____ Doodle

Warning, spoilers ahead! If you scroll past this, the answers are right below.

Final warning! Last chance to go back and finish the game.

Today's NYT Connections answers (spoilers)

Here are the Connections groups and the words that go with them.

Yellow group: Blunder (boo-boo, flub, gaffe, no-no)

Green group: Lands of the imagination (dream, fantasy, la-la, never never)

Blue group: Things with antenna/e (insect, radio tower, satellite dish, Teletubby)

Purple group: ____ Doodle (cheese, dipsy, Google, Yankee)

My results today

It took me a while to realize "things with antennas" was probably one of the groups. Once I did, I had to figure out whether to use "Dipsy" or "Teletubby," as both have antennas. Also, never heard of Dipsy Doodle or Cheese Doodle (from the purple group). Confusing game today but at least I made it out.

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Thanks for reading! Share how you did today in the comments.