Tim Mulkerin
Credit: Ian Moore
If you’re looking for the Connections hints and answer for Wednesday, June 12, 2024, read on—I’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solutions to all four categories. Along the way, I’ll explain the meanings of the trickier words and we’ll learn how everything fits together. Beware, there are spoilers below for June 12, NYT Connections #367! Read on if you want some hints (and then the answer) to today’s Connections game.
If you want an easy way to come back to our Connections hints every day, bookmark this page. You can also find our past hints there as well, in case you want to know what you missed in a previous puzzle.
Below, I’ll give you some oblique hints at today’s Connections answers. And farther down the page, I’ll reveal the themes and the answers. Scroll slowly and take just the hints you need!
Credit: Connections/NYT
Hints for the themes in today’s Connections puzzle
Here are some spoiler-free hints for the groupings in today’s Connections:
Yellow category - Ever been to The Big Apple?
Green category - Read these movie titles out loud and listen to how they sound.
Blue category - These movie titles give you a clue to how long they are.
Purple category - Zoological movies, kind of.
BEWARE: Spoilers follow for today’s Connections puzzle!
We’re about to give away some of the answers. Scroll slowly if you don’t want the whole thing spoiled. (The full solution is a bit further down.)
A heads up about the tricky parts
I’ve said this before when it comes to these tricky looking boards, but it bears repeating: don’t panic.
This board is filled entirely with movie titles, but the same basic rules of Connections still apply, and you actually don’t need pop culture knowledge to solve this puzzle.
DUMBO is a movie about an elephant with big ears, but it’s also the name of a neighborhood in Brooklyn.
What are the categories in today’s Connections?
Yellow: PLACES IN NEW YORK CITY
Green: RHYMING TITLES
Blue: ENDING IN UNITS OF MEASUREMENT
Purple: STARTING WITH ANIMALS
DOUBLE BEWARE: THE SOLUTION IS BELOW
Ready to learn the answers to today’s Connections puzzle? I give them all away below.
What are the yellow words in today’s Connections?
The yellow grouping is considered to be the most straightforward. The theme for today’s yellow group is PLACES IN NEW YORK CITY and the words are: CHINATOWN, DUMBO, MANHATTAN, WALL STREET.
What are the green words in today’s Connections?
The green grouping is supposed to be the second-easiest. The theme for today’s green category is RHYMING TITLES and the words are: BE KIND REWIND, E.T., FRIGHT NIGHT, KILL BILL.
What are the blue words in today’s Connections?
The blue grouping is the second-hardest. The theme for today’s blue category is ENDING IN UNITS OF MEASUREMENT and the words are: HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH, MY LEFT FOOT, THE GREEN MILE, THE LONGEST YARD.
What are the purple words in today’s Connections?
The purple grouping is considered to be the hardest. The theme for today’s purple category is STARTING WITH ANIMALS and the words are: BEETLEJUICE, DOGMA, FOXY BROWN, OCTOpuss*.
How I solved today’s Connections
Oh dear. Today’s a weird one. These are all movie titles, so my first instinct is to look for movies that are all directed by the same person, or movies that have the same starring actor—but I don’t think that’s quite the Connections style. Usually, the puzzles don’t rely entirely on outside knowledge; there’s usually some internal logic.
After looking for a bit longer, I see that four of the movies have animals in the titles: BEETLEJUICE, OCTOpuss*, FOXY BROWN, DOGMA. 🟪 Wow, that was the purple category? OK!
Next, I notice that there are four movies with names that are also places in New York City: WALL STREET, CHINATOWN, MANHATTAN, and DUMBO. 🟨
There are four movie titles here that have units of measurement in them: HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH, THE GREEN MILE, THE LONGEST YARD, MY LEFT FOOT. 🟦
That leaves FRIGHT NIGHT, KILL BILL, BE KIND REWIND, E.T., which are all movie titles that rhyme. 🟩
Connections Puzzle #367🟪🟪🟪🟪🟨🟨🟨🟨🟦🟦🟦🟦🟩🟩🟩🟩
How to play Connections
I have a full guide to playing Connections, but here’s a refresher on the rules:
First, find the Connections game either on the New York Times website or in their Games app (formerly the Crossword app). You’ll see a game board with 16 tiles, each with one word or phrase. Your job is to select a group of four tiles that have something in common. Often they are all the same type of thing (for example: RAIN, SLEET, HAIL, and SNOW are all types of wet weather) but sometimes there is wordplay involved (for example, BUCKET, GUEST, TOP TEN, and WISH are all types of lists: bucket list, guest list, and so on).
Select four items and hit the Submit button. If you guessed correctly, the category and color will be revealed. (Yellow is easiest, followed by green, then blue, then purple.) If your guess was incorrect, you’ll get a chance to try again.
You win when you’ve correctly identified all four groups. But if you make four mistakes before you finish, the game ends and the answers are revealed.
How to win Connections
The most important thing to know to win Connections is that the groupings are designed to be tricky. Expect to see overlapping groups. For example, one puzzle seemed to include six breakfast foods: BACON, EGG, PANCAKE, OMELET, WAFFLE, and CEREAL. But BACON turned out to be part of a group of painters along with CLOSE, MUNCH, and WHISTLER, and EGG was in a group of things that come by the dozen (along with JUROR, ROSE, and MONTH). So don’t hit “submit” until you’ve confirmed that your group of four contains only those four things.
If you’re stuck, another strategy is to look at the words that seem to have no connection to the others. If all that comes to mind when you see WHISTLER is the painting nicknamed “Whistler’s Mother,” you might be on to something. When I solved that one, I ended up googling whether there was a painter named Close, because Close didn’t fit any of the obvious themes, either.
Another way to win when you’re stuck is, obviously, to read a few helpful hints–which is why we share these pointers every day. Check back tomorrow for the next puzzle!
