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NYT Connections today: the 16 words in game #455
Connections asks you to sort 16 words into four groups of four that share a theme. The board for Sunday, September 8, 2024, was:
FROST, BEACH, PUMP, POPE, RACE, BISHOP, PET SHOP, POUND, HARDY, BEAT, PRIOR, BAKE, THROB, BAD, PREHEAT, PASTOR.
Hints for the September 8 puzzle
Stop here if you want nudges without seeing the categories or answers. The broad clues reported for the four groups are:
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- Instructions for cooking
- Coronary actions
- Religious positions
- Blank — not girls
Category hints
These labels are a stronger hint than the broad cues, but they do not list the four words in each group:
- Verbs in a cake recipe
- What a heart does when excited
- Ecclesiastical titles
- ___ BOYS
NYT Connections answers for September 8, 2024
The full solution for game #455 is below.
- Yellow — Verbs in a cake recipe: BAKE, BEAT, FROST, PREHEAT.
- Green — What a heart does when excited: POUND, PUMP, RACE, THROB.
- Blue — Ecclesiastical titles: BISHOP, PASTOR, POPE, PRIOR.
- Purple — ___ BOYS: BAD, BEACH, HARDY, PET SHOP.
The purple set completes the names Bad Boys, Beach Boys, Hardy Boys, and Pet Shop Boys. PET SHOP is a single two-word entry on the board.
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Why POUND, BEAT, and PET SHOP can be tricky
Some players in a discussion thread wondered whether POUND or BEAT could fit a cake-making theme. In this solution, both belong with PUMP and RACE in the excited-heart group. The overlap is a reminder to test all four words together before submitting a set: a plausible association for one word may not explain the rest.
Some commenters also said they did not recognize Pet Shop Boys or found PET SHOP an unexpectedly specific entry. The purple group depends on completing each board entry with “Boys,” rather than treating the four entries as a conventional category of objects or roles. Those comments are individual reactions, not a measure of how players generally found the puzzle.
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Can you replay Connections #455?
The New York Times Help Center says the daily Connections game releases at midnight in the player’s timezone. It lists the Games app, NYT Games website, NYTimes.com/theathletic, and the News app as places to play. Its archive guidance says All Access and Games subscribers can play the full Connections archive back to June 12, 2023. Archived puzzles affect some statistics, but they do not change current or maximum streaks; access remains subject to the Times’ current rules.
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