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 2.7 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 2.7 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 2.6 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.