Looking for today's Connections answer for puzzle #427 from August 11, which is much easier than yesterday's answer, the Connections companion rated this puzzle 2.0 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, #426.

Connection #427 contains a spoiler. Only read it if you want to know the answer to today's connection.

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 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 to know the answer, scroll down further.

Here's a bigger clue. Think of the Olympics being held across the pond.

Now, what is the answer to today's game #427 connection?

Drum roll please.

Yellow was easy today. I grew up near the largest naval base in the world, so I've heard most of the names of the ships.

Next on the list was green. Best and Champ came to mind because I had my eye on gold medals due to the Olympics now being held in Paris. Next came Legend, and then GOAT, an acronym for Great of All Time.

Then I tried to solve the Blue category. I wondered if there might be some connection with "about" or "on". Maybe a part-of-speech connection? But on my second guess, I folded in Concerned and Toward, and I was right.

Purple was then filled in by rote, so I couldn't guess the category, but I appreciated the play on words.

Reading this late in the day? According to Connections Companion, the difficulty level was 3.4 out of 5.

With yesterday's puzzle, I managed to get down the line with a little more gusto than usual, as Edge, Office, Times, and Windows almost instantly got the blue category.

Already distracted by the tools at work, I easily got the green category next. I have spent more time with Microsoft products than I care to admit, functioning, operating, running, and working with them.

In the yellow category, I spent a long time staring at the devil and Mars and asking myself, "Why?" Surely only the red ones...? Wouldn't it be...?" That was my thinking. But sometimes it really is as simple as that.

Today I memorized "Purple" along with "Blonde," "Jobs," "Milk," and "Vice."