Technology

The NYT Connections puzzle today is not too difficult if you're a frequent flyer.

Connections is the one of the most popular New York Times word games that's captured the public's attention. The game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.

If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for today's Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable What is Connections?

The NYT's latest daily word game has become a social media hit. The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications' Games section. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.

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Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there's only one correct answer.

If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.

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Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.

SEE ALSO: NYT Pips hints, answers for August 2, 2026 Here's a hint for today's Connections categories

Want a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:

• Yellow: Um...

• Green: Across

• Blue: Setting

• Purple: Travel hubs

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Here are today's Connections categories

Need a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:

• Yellow: Filler words

• Green: By means of

• Blue: __ Mode

• Purple: U.S. airport codes plus starting letter

Looking for Wordle today? Here's the answer to today's Wordle.

Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today's puzzle before we reveal the solutions.

Drumroll, please!

The solution to today's Connections #1148 is...

What is the answer to Connections today

• Filler words: ACTUALLY, LIKE, SO, WELL

• By means of: BY, PER, THROUGH, VIA

• __ Mode: AIRPLANE, BEAST, DARK, À LA

• U.S. airport codes plus starting letter: ASEA, FLAX, LORD, OLGA

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for August 2, 2026

Are you also playing NYT Strands? Get all the Strands hints you need for today's puzzle.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Connections.

Today's NYT Strands hints are easy if you're goal-driven.

Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game, requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There's always a theme linking every solution, along with the "spangram," a special, word or phrase that sums up that day's theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable

By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.

If you're feeling stuck or just don't have 10 or more minutes to figure out today's puzzle, we've got all the NYT Strands hints for today's puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for August 2, 2026 NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Eyes on the prize

The words are related to drive.

Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained

These words describe aspiration.

NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?

Today's NYT Strands spangram is diagonal.

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NYT Strands spangram answer today

Today's spangram is Aim High.

NYT Strands word list for August 2

• Ambition

• Plan

• Goal

• Purpose

• Aim High

• Objective

• Intention

Looking for other daily online games? Mashable's Games page has more hints, and if you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now!

Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Strands.

Today's Wordle answer should be easy to solve if you're a rule breaker.

If you just want to be told today's word, you can jump to the bottom of this article for today's Wordle solution revealed. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for August 2, 2026 Where did Wordle come from?

Originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner, Wordle rapidly spread to become an international phenomenon, with thousands of people around the globe playing every day. Alternate Wordle versions created by fans also sprang up, including battle royale Squabble, music identification game Heardle, and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once. 

Wordle eventually became so popular that it was purchased by the New York Times, and TikTok creators even livestream themselves playing.

What's the best Wordle starting word?

The best Wordle starting word is the one that speaks to you. But if you prefer to be strategic in your approach, we have a few ideas to help you pick a word that might help you find the solution faster. One tip is to select a word that includes at least two different vowels, plus some common consonants like S, T, R, or N.

What happened to the Wordle archive?

The entire archive of past Wordle puzzles was originally available for anyone to enjoy whenever they felt like it, but it was later taken down, with the website's creator stating it was done at the request of the New York Times. However, the New York Times then rolled out its own Wordle Archive, available only to NYT Games subscribers.

Is Wordle getting harder?

It might feel like Wordle is getting harder, but it actually isn't any more difficult than when it first began. You can turn on Wordle's Hard Mode if you're after more of a challenge, though.

SEE ALSO: NYT Pips hints, answers for August 2, 2026 Here's a subtle hint for today's Wordle answer:

Punishable.

Does today's Wordle answer have a double letter?

There are no recurring letters.

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Today's Wordle is a 5-letter word that starts with...

Today's Wordle starts with the letter P.

SEE ALSO: Wordle-obsessed? These are the best word games to play IRL. The Wordle answer today is...

Get your last guesses in now, because it's your final chance to solve today's Wordle before we reveal the solution.

Drumroll please!

The solution to today's Wordle is...

PENAL

Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be a new Wordle for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints. Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.

Reporting by Chance Townsend, Caitlin Welsh, Sam Haysom, Amanda Yeo, Shannon Connellan, Cecily Mauran, Mike Pearl, and Adam Rosenberg contributed to this article.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Wordle.

If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.

There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it'll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.

An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle.

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If you find yourself stuck at any step of today's Hurdle, don't worry! We have you covered.

SEE ALSO: Hurdle: Everything you need to know to find the answers Hurdle Word 1 hint

Meaner.

SEE ALSO: Apple’s new M3 MacBook Air is $300 off at Amazon. And yes, I’m tempted. Hurdle Word 1 answer

RUDER

Hurdle Word 2 hint

Peanut butter brand.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for August 2, 2026 Hurdle Word 2 Answer

JIFFY

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Hurdle Word 3 hint

Cozy restaurant.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for August 2 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for August 2, 2026 Hurdle Word 3 answer

DINER

Hurdle Word 4 hint

Junk.

Hurdle Word 4 answer

SCRAP

Final Hurdle hint

Fad.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Games available on Mashable Hurdle Word 5 answer

TREND

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

SAVE $100: The Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 is bundled with a $100 Amazon gift card for $699.99.

Opens in a new window Credit: Samsung Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 + $100 Gift Card   Get Deal

Samsung Unpacked dropped a wave of new gear this month — new Samsung phones, new watches, and even Samsung Galaxy Glasses.

And here's the sweetener: Amazon is currently bundling the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 with a free $100 gift card, priced at $699.99.

SEE ALSO: Upgrade your Switch 2 storage for less: Samsung’s P9 Express microSD is on sale at Amazon

This one's built for the outdoors. On a run or hike, it acts as a trail guide — giving you path, elevation, and pace guidance along the way, plus hydration alerts to help you stay ahead of dehydration rather than catch up to it. Instead of making you check your health stats separately, it also combines them into a single Heart Health Score, giving you one clear number.

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To get the gift card, select the gift card bundle variation at checkout. Since the offer ends Aug. 6, you should consider grabbing the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 now while you still can.

TL;DR: Become a sign language expert with help from The All-in-One American Sign Language Bundle, on sale now for just $10.49 (reg. $104) with code COURSE30 until Aug. 2.

Opens in a new window Credit: The All-in-One American Sign Language Bundle The All-in-One American Sign Language Bundle $10.49
$104 Save $93.51   Get Deal

If you’ve always wanted to learn American Sign Language, consider this your sign that it’s finally time. This All-in-One American Sign Language Bundle gives you access to 13 informative courses on a wide range of topics from different instructors to help give you a comprehensive education.

Right now, you can score The All-in-One American Sign Language Bundle for only $10.49 with code COURSE30 until tomorrow at 11:59 p.m. PT.

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Learn a whole new language at your own pace, all from the comfort of your couch, with this All-in-One American Sign Language Bundle. This online course combo is packed with 13 different courses that will shape you into an ASL expert in no time.

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I love Docker, but I didn't always have such an easy time with it. In retrospect, not using a Docker manager was one of my biggest mistakes when first starting to use the software. While I run Portainer on a daily basis nowadays, my first time using Docker was spent without a manager. It was rough, to say the least.

There is a growing body of research examining how AI influences the way we think, learn, and solve problems. While no study has yet measured the long-term cognitive effects of AI use—after all, these tools have been widely available for less than five years—researchers are identifying patterns that align with established findings in psychology and neuroscience.

If something goes wrong in my home, like a pipe bursting, I would rather find out from a notification than stepping in inches of water. It’s for that reason that I’ve started building a water leak detection system using this one adorable, off-the-shelf sensor: the IKEA KLIPPBOK.

Got an old Android tablet gathering dust in a drawer? Wondering if there’s anything genuinely useful you can do with it besides recycling it? Here are seven practical ways to give your old Android tablet a new life and a new purpose.

Google's TV Streamer ships with a handful of defaults that work against you. These three changes take less than five minutes and make the whole experience faster and less intrusive.

We often hear more about Google's Android features than Samsung's, even though Samsung sells far more phones. While those Samsung phones come with many Google apps installed, they're also packed with Samsung-specific features that are often better than their flashier alternatives on Pixel phones. Let's touch on some of the bangers.

Yes, I daily-drive a trackball mouse. I have used trackballs on and off throughout my life, but I've never actually owned one. It was usually at school or using my dad's friend's PC. An architect, he swore by this big A4Tech trackball mouse and when I had to do anything on one of these computers (usually fix them), the big red ball mouse was the only option.

I know many consider Android Auto to be essential when buying a car—but as for me, I rarely use it. The way I see it, my car's infotainment system is already a better experience.

Rclone is an app that lets you upload, download, sync, and delete files in the cloud. Let me show you why it's better than the official apps from your cloud providers.

From a built-in spam detector to the option of pinning messages and automatically deleting OTPs, the Google Messages app offers a variety of features. Here are nine Google Messages features that everyone should know about.

I love tinkering with Home Assistant. While the main purpose of using it is to create automations for controlling my smart home, sometimes you need to do things manually. Tapping smart home dashboards or shouting at voice assistants isn't always that much fun, but over the years I've set up plenty of weird and wonderful ways to make my smart home do what I want.

OpenAI founder and CEO Sam Altman is trending on X for suggesting that parents use ChatGPT to generate podcasts about their children's lives in lieu of... listening to them.

"cool use case of chatgpt work i heard last night," he shared on X in all lowercase. "connect your family calendars and explain your kids' interests."

SEE ALSO: The OpenAI-Hugging Face hack was worse than we thought

He continued, "Every morning for the drive to school, have it make a podcast that talks about one kid's soccer game that afternoon, one kid's upcoming birthday, some news, etc."

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The post has amassed around 9,500 likes at the time of this writing, dwarfed by 120,000 likes on the reply, "What if you just talked to your children?" from Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch. (The same day, Hirsch also criticized Google's addition of its AI image generator into Google Earth, which it reversed.) Other popular replies have the same sentiment: That Altman is apparently encouraging users to disconnect from their families.

The backlash about AI tools has ramped up in recent years, for a myriad of reasons, including environmental impacts, surveillance, job loss, and fears of AI psychosis. The potential degrading of relationships is also a concern for some, as more people turn to chatbots to outsource relational conflicts or even seek to replace relationships themselves.

Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

I owned a 981-generation Porsche Cayman S for several years. I put about 4,000 track miles on mine before I moved on to something else. My Cayman S was brilliant on the racetrack. It was so well-balanced, the PDK transmission was fantastic, and the car sounded great as well.

Samsung DeX is the oldest and most popular Android-based desktop, but it wasn't my first, and it's not necessarily the best. Depending on how you want to use your phone with an external display, you would be wise not to sleep on Motorola's Smart Connect.