Looking for today's Connections answer for puzzle 419 from August 3, which is a little easier than yesterday's answer, the Connections companion rates the difficulty of this puzzle at 3 out of 5.

We update our Connections hints and tips daily. If the hints are not enough for you, we have also included the solutions to all four puzzles, the category names, and the related words. In addition, for those of you reading this in a different time zone, I have included a reflection on yesterday's puzzle 418.

Connection #419 has spoilers. Only those who want to know the answer to today's connection should read it.

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.

There is a bigger clue. Click on "The Wizard of Oz" to go home.

Now, what is the answer to today's game #419 Connection?

Drum roll please.

After yesterday's struggle, today's puzzle was a nice walk.

As former President Biden would say, malarkey-on came to mind, and since three of the four answers were in the corners, I turned first to the blue category and its nonsense. Tripe was the next most likely edible organ category after stomach and tongue, so I had to worry, but I'm glad I did.

Yellow was quickly filled with highs, kicks, rushes, and thrills.

I could have pinched either green or purple here, but I saw bear and stomach while I pinched the other two. Therefore, I needed a stand and take for tolerance.

The purple category was cute, with heels, mouse, remote control, and clicking tongue. It may have had something to do with the awful trailer for the recently released "Wicked," but it put me in the frame of mind of "The Wizard of Oz."

Are you reading this late in the day? According to Connections Companion, the difficulty rating was 3.4 out of 5.

I struggled with this problem today. Let's start with the easy ones.

I looked at the green category first and did a quick mix, sample, scratch, and spin. This was fun.

While looking for greens I looked at Strains and Taxes, so finding Tests and Trials was my next priority.

Early on I was thinking about grammar rules, especially tenses. Fortunately, I knocked out the other two categories, which made it easier to look at direct, irregular, possessive, and present tense in the blue category. I understand what they were trying to do here, but I wish there had been another category name or relationship to grammar.

The purple category makes sense, but I could not find the fourth word. To me, lush does not mean green. Even though I know the phrase like lush forest, I take the word to mean drunk, but I still can't think of the word "green."

My mind would not willingly make the connection. Fortunately, I solved for purple last, so it wasn't that big of a deal.