NYT Connections Hints, July 20: Here's a Breakdown of the Sunday puzzle #770 with answers

Economic Times

20-07-2025

The New York Times' increasingly popular word game, Connections, continues to engage and confound puzzle enthusiasts worldwide. With puzzle #770 released this Sunday, July 20, 2025, players were once again challenged to sort 16 seemingly unrelated words into cohesive groups, each with an underlying association.While some participants breezed through the categories, others found themselves at a standstill, prompting a fresh round of online discussion and demand for NYT Connections hints. For those teetering on the edge of giving up or seeking a mental nudge, we provide a guided breakdown, without immediately revealing the answers.
Following the tremendous success of Wordle, The New York Times introduced Connections, a word association game that quickly found favor among puzzle lovers for its mix of simplicity and depth. The concept is straightforward: players are presented with 16 words and must divide them into four groups of four, based on shared connections.What complicates the experience is the game's built-in misdirection. Similar-sounding or overlapping meanings can easily throw even experienced players off-course. Each grouping is also color-coded based on difficulty—Yellow (easy), Green (medium), Blue (hard), and Purple (tricky)—making for a progressive challenge that appeals to all age groups.For puzzle #770, the editorial team behind the game leaned into pop culture, biology, mixology, and semantics. If you're looking for a nudge in the right direction without being outright spoiled, these clues may help you find today's Connections answers, as mentioned in a report by Beebom.
Yellow Group Hint: Think movement when music plays—dancing, grooving, or swaying to rhythm.
Green Group Hint: This group revolves around an act your body does involuntarily but regularly—typically involving the lungs.
Blue Group Hint: Picture a suave fictional spy and how he prefers his drink mixed—classic references to beverage details.
Purple Group Hint: All four words share a common suffix, and together, the clue suggests they're commonly paired with the term 'word.'
Still stumped? Read on for deeper insight into each theme before reaching the final solution.1. Move to the Music (Yellow) This category invited players to think of terms describing rhythmic or musical movements. Whether at a party or lost in headphones, words in this group describe the universal urge to move to the beat.
2. Inhalation (Green) Not to be confused with general breathing, this group references more active or conscious inhaling actions—commonly used in contexts involving smoking, vaping, or strong aromas.
3. Martini Specifications (Blue) A niche category but no less clever, this group highlights adjectives and nouns often associated with how a martini is ordered—classic phrases often attributed to James Bond lore.
4. _ _ _ Word (Purple) Perhaps the trickiest of all, the purple group features terms that, when paired with the word 'word,' take on an entirely different meaning. From legal terminologies to digital culture, this group was all about pairing.Unlike typical crossword or vocabulary games, Connections taps into semantic intuition, challenging the brain to find commonality amid ambiguity. The difficulty levels often fluctuate, with many players noting that weekend puzzles like today's lean slightly more toward the creative and lateral thinking spectrum.
The use of pop culture, linguistic twists, and even bar references means that solving a Connections puzzle is not just about language—it's about interpretation, memory, and deduction. For many, that's what sets it apart. To elevate your daily performance, seasoned solvers recommend a few tried-and-tested techniques: Begin with the Obvious: Yellow categories often offer the most straightforward connections. Spotting them first gives confidence and narrows the pool.
Avoid Guess-Spamming: With only four incorrect submissions allowed, it's wise to test ideas mentally before locking them in.
Use the Shuffle Feature: Reordering the grid can help break visual bias. Many find connections clearer once the layout changes.
Sound and Wordplay: NYT editors frequently hide associations in pronunciation or suffixes. Homophones, rhymes, and prefixes often lead to breakthroughs.
Think Culturally: A background in pop culture trivia or idioms can offer an edge, especially with categories involving drinks, music, or wordplay.
Platforms like Reddit, Discord, and X (formerly Twitter) continue to buzz daily with players exchanging their triumphs and frustrations. Memes around streak losses or 'aha' moments after solving particularly convoluted categories make the Connections community one of the most active among casual puzzle solvers.Players also use these spaces to develop personal solving styles. Whether one works by color guesses or thematic assumptions, the shared experience and camaraderie foster a healthy habit of logical play and lighthearted competition.If you've scrolled this far and are still puzzled, the following are the confirmed categories and word groupings for Sunday, July 20, 2025: MOVE TO THE MUSIC: BOP, BOUNCE, GROOVE, SWAY
INHALATION: DRAG, DRAW, PUFF, PULL
MARTINI SPECIFICATIONS: DRY, GIN, SHAKEN, TWIST
_ _ _ WORD: BUZZ, CROSS, LOAN, PASS
Each group, upon reflection, ties neatly to its theme, though several players noted that the '_ _ _ WORD' category in purple stumped them the longest. NYT Connections is a daily word association puzzle from The New York Times that presents players with 16 words. The objective is to group these words into four categories four, based on hidden thematic or semantic links. Connections has gained traction due to its combination of simplicity and depth. It encourages lateral thinking, intuition, and cultural recall, making it more dynamic than standard vocabulary puzzles.