Looking for today's Connections answer for puzzle #403 from July 18, the first major breakthrough in a few days! The Connections companion rated this puzzle 3.2 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, #402.

There are spoilers for connection #403. Only those who want to know the answer to today's connection should read on.

Alternatively, 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 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.

There is a bigger clue. Take a punch, take a stroll through space, add a little spice, and send images like a boomer.

So what's the answer to today's game #403 Connection.

Drum roll please.

Surprisingly, today's puzzle was solved quickly, despite its difficulty.

I found Plaza, Square, and Court first in the yellow category. I couldn't find yards, so I tried rounds first. Strike one. The mistake was quickly rectified. But I thought the round would have felt really right if they did it again.

When I did the green category, I wasn't thinking about boxing. To me, those four words-bout, contest, match, and round-have all become common sports terms. Still, it worked.

Did I get two strikes in a row, trying to match the fire and sparkle with the dazzle, flash, glamour, and ritz? Yes, I did. I still think the spark was the more obvious choice (an entirely different category, perhaps fireworks).

If you're watching these blogs, the purple category was not as irritating as yesterday's poor grouping.

That's okay. I don't use emojis, smiley faces, or thumbs ups. Sometimes the purple category needs to be eliminated by the process, and today is one of those days.

I'm reading this late in the day. According to Connections Companion, the difficulty level was 2.7 out of 5.

I don't think I've ever been as frustrated with memorized fills as I was with the purple category today. We'll talk about this another time.

I thought today's yellow category was a trap. One of the real traps is the “laundry” tease: laundromat, hamper, cart, laundry. Of course, that doesn't work. Laundromats are just another place alongside banks, post offices, and supermarkets. Which reminds me, I have a few errands to run outside the house.

Having gotten past the laundry trap, I moved on to the hamper, already thinking about the combination of curb and restraint. Checks were easy to find from there, but I wondered if I should include nicks, which is not a good analogy.

The blue category is fun with animal group words; pack, pride, school, and swarm are common ones that most people know. My personal favorite is the Owl Diet. I love discovering new names.

My irritation with the purple category stems from the fact that it is almost a trap word category. With the exception of bidet, most of them can be seen in the various wrong connections you might make. When you finally fill in the purple, it is inconsistent. For example, it is not a group of presidents ending in “on” or “er.”

Not a grab bag of anything. The thing is that none of these words are compatible with the other three existing categories. Worst.

Basically, I think the categories need to stand alone, even if we use some of them to trick puzzlers. In this example, I don't think it stands alone, and as mentioned, it has very little theme. It can still trap people, but it needs to be consistent.

Where to stop with the beginning of the name; Washing could have been Wash, if you needed a word instead of Nixo, or Hard of Harding, or John of any of the Johnsons. Cool from Coolidge was also interesting. Looking at the four-letter answers in this category, there is some consistency, and there is still a trap factor with the other words in the grid.

One category shouldn't be this frustrating, but see, it was awful.