NYT Connections Answers (June 11): Curvy Challenge & A Cereal Surprise. Here's How To Solve
As always, Connection's goal is deceptively simple: group 16 seemingly unrelated words into four connected categories.
NYT Connections Answers: The New York Times' Connections puzzle for Wednesday, June 11, has delivered another round of brain teasers — this time mixing swagger, syntax, and sugary mascots in a web of 16 tricky terms. Puzzle #730 offered a satisfying mix of misdirection and “aha!” moments, with clues that required a keen eye for both semantics and shape.
As always, the goal was simple: group 16 seemingly unrelated words into four connected categories. But simplicity is a trap — and NYT knows it.
The Puzzle Words
Today's grid featured the following: Eyebrow, Number, Rainbow, Rooster, Leprechaun, Dagger, Count, Crow, Asterisk, Flight Path, Strut, Banana, Show Off, Parens, Elves, and Bluster.
Some groupings were intuitive; others relied on more obscure connections or visual metaphors.
Spoiler Alert: The Official Categories
For those still wrestling with the grid or just here for the reveal, here's how today’s Connections puzzle played out:
Yellow (Easiest): Boast
- Words: Bluster, Crow, Show Off, Strut
- Think big egos and bigger entrances — this set was all about flaunting it.
Green: Arc-Shaped Things
- Words: Banana, Eyebrow, Flight Path, Rainbow
- “It’s about the shape,” the hint said — and indeed, this quartet followed a curvy trail.
Blue: Cereal Mascots
- Words: Count, Elves, Leprechaun, Rooster
- Morning cereal boxes provided the key here. As the hint noted, “If you eat cereal, you might’ve seen these.”
Purple (Hardest): Ways to Denote a Citation
- Words: Asterisk, Dagger, Number, Parens
- This one dove into the world of academic referencing and typography.
Tricky Red Herrings and Handy Hints
The puzzle also threw in some deliberate confusion. Rooster and Crow, for example, were in separate categories despite their barnyard kinship. “The green group is the only one without a word ending in ‘-er,’” the puzzle teased — a subtle pattern that proved useful for the attentive solver.
Daily hints offered extra nudges without giving too much away: “If you want to impress others, you might do this” pointed squarely at the boastful Yellow set. Meanwhile, the cereal mascots might have only clicked once you imagined a grocery aisle.
Whether you soared through the arcs or stumbled over the citations, Puzzle #730 was a delightful midweek mix of wordplay, logic, and the occasional breakfast memory.
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