Looking for today's Connections answer for puzzle 412 on July 27, the same difficulty level as yesterday, this puzzle from the Connections Companion has a difficulty rating of 26 out of 5

We update our Connections clues and hints 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, #411

There are spoilers for connection #412 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 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 to know the answer, scroll down further

There is a bigger clue Now, please excuse the digression while we work on the R-rated piece

So what is the answer to today's game #412 Connection?

Drum roll, please

To my surprise, the difficulty of today's puzzle was exactly the same as Friday's and Thursday's

I managed to find the first green category by looking at generation, production, and harvest I expected to see more bear and fox animals, but alas Speaking of bears, the word “bear” is “fruitful However, I don't think this word alone fits this definition The only other word I can think of is “bears young,” but it doesn't seem grammatically correct in this category

When I put aside, detour, digression, and tangent together, I was quite surprised to see them in the yellow category for some reason I had assumed they were grouped together in blue I tend to wipe the hard categories first and try to save the yellow unless I need to use it to clear the board and my mind a bit

The real blue categories were a little fun with Babe, Fox, Snack, and Ten The slang category is fun

My first thought when I saw the purple category title was that it was, frankly, wrong: Radius, R, Reverse, yes, that's an R Even though I knew there was an R like “How r u”, I didn't want to accept it Well, sometimes you have to let go of the first idea and see what comes next, or even third

I am reading this late in the day According to Connections Companion, the difficulty level was 26 out of 5

Despite the same difficulty level as yesterday's puzzle, this one was easier

Perhaps due to the political noise of the presidential election, which seems to have been going on since 2020, the green category was immediately pinged with back, champion, endorse, and support

I thought the yellow category might be a trap with down, left, right, and up, but I rolled the dice to be sure and was rewarded

For some reason, I got stuck on the word ding, and my thinking on the last two categories went haywire It took me longer than I would like to admit to actually lining up the con, ding, minus, and strike in the blue category

Purple became a memorization fill for base, liar, lute, and symbol I like this, but it is the type of purple category I have a hard time with I think I am looking for narrative connections, not linguistic connections If I can tell myself a story of some sort, it is easier to see the connections in my head