Today's puzzle had me eradically going out of order;
Find our guide to New York Times Connections answers and hints for August 8 below.
Spoilers lie ahead for Connections #1,156. Only read on if you want to know today's Connections answers.
Plus, we're including a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #1,155, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.
Alternatively, visit our how to play NYT Connections guide for tips on how to solve the puzzle without our help.
What is Connections
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.
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.
Today's Connections answer — hints to help you solve it
Today's Connection Grid and Words
- Billy goat
- Balance due
- Willy-nilly
- Mail delivery
- Bill to
- Helter-skelter
- Will call
- The devil
- Doctor Strange
- Order number
- Any old how
- Mobile ticket
- Unit price
- Colonel Sanders
- Print-at-home
- At random
We have the Connections categories below, but here's a hint without the actual titles. Try this out:
- 🟨 Yellow: Nonsensically
- 🟩 Green: Concert
- 🟦 Blue: Bill
- 🟪 Purple: Chin
Today's Connections Group Hints
If you need hints to solve the groupings, then here are the themes of each, based on the order of difficulty:
- 🟨 Yellow: Haphazardly
- 🟩 Green: Ways to receive event tickets
- 🟦 Blue: Sections on an invoice
- 🟪 Purple: Famous goatees
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.
Today's Connections answers
The Connections answers on August 10 for puzzle #1,156 are slightly easier than yesterday's puzzle, with the Connections Companion rating this puzzle's difficulty at 1.7 out of 5.
- 🟨 Haphazardly: Any old how, At random, Helter-skelter, Willy-nilly
- 🟩 Ways to receive event tickets: Mail delivery, Mobile ticket, Print-at-home, Will call
- 🟦 Sections on an invoice: Balance due, Bill to, Order number, Unit price
- 🟪 Things People Try to Get Out Of: Billy goat, Colonel Sanders, Doctor Strange, The Devil
Today's puzzle was quite easy, though I did go out of order (again). I started with green, figuring out the event tickets. Perhaps I go to too many concerts, but this jumped out at me almost instantly.
From there, my time as a freelancer kicked in, and I noticed the items that go on an invoice, which is the blue category in today's Connections puzzle.
Finally, I figured out yellow, realizing that they were all about things being placed randomly (I admit, I don't know if I've heard helter-skelter used that way — I always just associated it with Charles Manson and The Beatles.
Anyway, process of elimination got me to purple, though I had no idea how they connected until it actually showed me.
Yesterday's Connections answers
- 🟨 Take a Different Approach: Change Tack, Course-Correct, Recalibrate, Shift Gears
- 🟩 Classic Children's Books: Caps for Sale, Corduroy, Goodnight Moon, Madeline
- 🟦 Movie Subgenres: Buddy Cop, Neo-Noir, Space Opera, Spaghetti Western
- 🟪 Things People Try to Get Out Of: Bad Dream, Escape Room, Jury Duty, Labyrinth
Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Connections answers for game #1,155, which had a difficulty rating of 2.2 out of 5.
I figured out today's Connections puzzle out of order, but I ultimately got it done. It took me just a few seconds to pick up on the movie subgenre clue, so I locked that in right away.
I locked in yellow pretty easily right after, as the creators of Connections intended.
From there, I slowed down a bit, as I knew three of the four book titles and ended up guessing Caps for Sale, as I've never heard of it.
Then, it was just a matter of process of elimination to get purple.
