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 2.6 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 2.6 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