Looking for today's Connections answer for puzzle #392 from July 7, which is considerably more difficult than yesterday's puzzle. The Connections companion rated this puzzle 4.2 out of 5 for difficulty.

We update our Connections hints and tips daily. And if the hints aren't enough, you can see all four solutions along with the category title and related words. In addition, for those of you reading this in a different time zone, I have included a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #391.

There are spoilers for connection #392. Only those who want to know the answer to today's connection 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 starting word in Wordle as the strategy, the Connections solution requires you to identify 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 will help as the answer is displayed after four wrong guesses.

If you need a hint to help you 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: Today's puzzle may make you think about superheroes, but don't be fooled by it. These categories are much more earthly, atomic, and all too human.

So, the answer to today's connection in game #392 is.

Drum roll please.

Rating 4.2 is no joke: Today's puzzle was difficult. The words suit, hero, and evaporation brought visions of Superman to mind. I had forgotten that evaporation is not just for laser eyes. But when the definitions I learned in high school science class came back to me, the other three yellow ones, condensation, freezing, and thawing, felt right.

Green was a bit simpler. First, I understood the connection between alternate and backup, which led to sub; it took me a while to realize that the fourth was cover (I guess I hadn't fully freed myself from the superhero thought process yet).

After that, the blue came together nicely. Once I realized that the suit was not emblazoned spandex, but boring Wall Street, the shrink immediately jumped to attention. Huck came after that, but struggled again in the fourth. The yellow category made me think about science, so it took me a moment to remember that copper means something other than what pennies are made of.

Purple was filled in by rote memorization, which worked out great for me since the only Mariah Carey song I knew off the top of my head was "All I Want for Christmas Is You."

I'm reading this late in the day. According to Connections Companion, the difficulty level was 3.2 out of 5.

My colleague Scott recently welcomed a little joy baby into his family.

It was only after he finished solving this category that he realized the smartphone trap in the puzzle. But be careful when starting this puzzle.

He used the cell phone synonym as a starting point for the other categories. Thus, he started the yellow category with cells, quickly gaining atoms, molecules, and proteins.

Once he had the yellow and green categories, it was a coin flip as to whether he would get the blue or the purple first. As the grid shifted, the jug and spoon were next to each other, and below them was a washboard. He soon realized that the instruments were connected.

Purple makes sense. Had the grid shifted differently, he said, he might have seen it first. Dogs, freezes, phones, and prices are killing the phone traps.