Looking for today's Connections answer for puzzle #422 on August 6, which is nearly identical to yesterday's difficulty level, this puzzle from the Connections Companion has a difficulty level of 27 out of 5

We update our Connections clues and hints daily And if the hints aren't enough, you can see all four answers along with the category title and related words In addition, for those of you reading this in a different time zone, I've included a reflection on yesterday's puzzle 421

There are spoilers for connection 422 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

Here's a bigger hint: If you'd like, think soft, and then think about whether you'd be willing to study while standing up for yourself

Now, what's the answer to today's connection in game #422?

Drum roll please

Today's difficulty level of 27 was just right

There was fog instead of dandelions, so I hit it early with yellow In my mind, I described it as cottony Also, I was imagining a yellow dandelion, not a ball that a child would send flying all over the place Interchanging these two, I became a cloud, a cotton ball, and a sheep

Generally, when I see a guinea pig, I immediately think of a subject So it was quick to see participants, subjects, and volunteers

Disapproval, hearts, subjects, and protests stuck with me, as I had been taking issue with several categories over the past few days It helped that three of them were right next to each other in the way the grid fell

Purple became a memorizing fill for "bull" horn, "fog" horn, "matter" horn, and "shoe" horn I like this As I mentioned, I thought of the famous fog horn Leghorn in Looney Tunes Let's go see the cartoon

Are you reading this late in the day? According to Connections Companion, the difficulty level was 26 out of 5

Today's puzzle was easier than yesterday's First I looked through the double-word and solved the yellow category and left

Next was blue, which was fairly easy since Capisce has only one meaning; Understand and Get It were close together, so I plugged in See and completed the category

Green was easy because I am old-fashioned and still like to send good old physical cards to friends and family

And I didn't realize what the purple category was today, but at that point I only had four clues left, which I had to fill in by rote But I appreciate the play on words