Looking for answers to today's Connections? The Connections Companion has a difficulty rating of 3.7 out of 5.

We update our Connections hints and tips daily. And if the hints aren't enough, you can see all four answers along with the category title and related words. In addition, for those reading this in a different time zone, I've included a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #384.

There are spoilers for Connections #385. Only those who want to know the answer to today's Connections should read on.

Or see our NYT Connections How to Play Guide for tips on how to solve the puzzle without our help.

While today's wordle solution guide recommends the best wordle starting words as a strategy, the Connections solution depends on identifying the categories that are connected from the 16 words. The difficulty of each category is represented by a color, with yellow being the easiest grouping and purple the most difficult. Hints are helpful as the answer is displayed after four wrong guesses.

If you need a hint to solve the groupings, here are each theme in order of difficulty:

If you read these hints, you should at least find the answer to today's connection. If not, please continue reading for larger hints. Also, if you only want the answer, scroll down further.

Here's a bigger clue. Think of summer activities, family gatherings, backyard grilling, etc.

Now, what's the answer to today's game #385 Connection?

Drum roll, please.

The easiest category of today's puzzle gave me the most trouble. Of all the tree-related words, blue was tricked by chestnut, which, combined with the fact that I had never heard Saw used in the context of an old proverb, was initially quite perplexing. Thankfully, I took my chances with Adage and Maxim.

Green again had red herring at Wood. However, it was easy to connect the dots between charcoal, electricity, and gas at the summer barbecue, so I was able to see through the connection trap.

Since I had already thought about wood in the previous two categories, I chose blue next. I chose blue because, let's face it, I know nothing about hot tubs.

Are you reading this late in the day? According to Connections Companion, the difficulty level was 3.3 out of 5.

Two days ago, I expected today's puzzle to be a bit more fun, but the Connections staff was a bit tricky.

Should I have fallen into the obvious day-of-week trap they set? No, but I did.

Once that trap was out of the way, I started with Wednesday to see what would lead from there. I immediately looked at UNITE and COUPLES. Then I found a tie to complete the green category.

I don't know why I looked at the blue category next; Laid, placed, and put were easy to grab. But I was really looking for a set.

Yellow homonyms were easy to find in to, too, two, and two.

Purple had interesting connections to may flower, sunflower, wallflower, and wild flower. I liked this grouping and wished I had seen it earlier.