Clues and answers for Wednesday, Aug 27

Stuck on today’s New York Times Connections puzzle (#808)? Don’t worry, you are definitely not alone! These puzzles can be surprisingly challenging, but I have got some handy hints and insights to help you breeze through Wednesday’s game. And yes, if you want the spoilers, I have got those ready for you too. No shame in getting a little assist!

If you’re new to NYT Connections, here’s a quick rundown of how it works, along with some tips that might save you from frustration.

What exactly is NYT Connections?

NYT Connections is not your typical word game. It is a brain teaser where you are presented with a 4×4 grid containing 16 words. Your task? To find four groups of four words that share a common connection. These groups are color-coded: yellow, green, blue, and purple. The yellow group is usually the easiest to figure out, while purple tends to be the toughest.

Tips to Conquer NYT Connections

Though I’m fairly new to this game, here are some strategies that have worked for me:

• Pay Attention to Feedback: When you get something wrong, watch the message at the top. “One away” means you’re close, just one word off. That’s a cue to rethink which word might fit better elsewhere.
• Shuffle to Refresh Your View: Don’t hesitate to shuffle the board multiple times. Seeing the words in different arrangements can spark new ideas.
• Start with the Easy Groups: The yellow group tends to be the most obvious since those words usually share clear commonalities, like being synonyms. Just watch out for trick words that might fit more than one category.

NYT Connections Hints for Today (August 27, 2025)

If you struggled with grouping the words today, here are a few clues that might have helped.

• Yellow group: How a restaurant might serve your water.
• Green group: Choices on a cash machine screen.
• Blue group: Ways to answer a yes/no question.
• Purple group: Bets you can make at a casino.

For reference, one word from each group was:

• Yellow: Tap
• Green: Savings
• Blue: True
• Purple: Odd

The Official NYT Connections Categories

If you don’t want spoilers, stop here because the actual groups are just below!

• Yellow (Restaurant water options): Bottled, Sparkling Still, Tap
• Green (ATM options): Checking, Deposit, Savings, Withdrawal
• Blue (Binary Question options): False, No, True, Yes
• Purple (Roulette options): Black, Even Odd, Red

My Take

Today’s puzzle was quite direct once you figured out the themes. I spotted the “Restaurant Water Options” right away, which gave me a good start with the yellow category. The ATM options also came together pretty quickly. The blue group, with its simple one-syllable words, was a bit tricky to spot, but once I saw “True” and “False”, the “Binary Question Options” theme clicked. That left the purple category, “Roulette Options,” which was a clever final group that I solved by elimination.