Looking for today's Connections answer for puzzle #434 on August 18, the difficulty level of the Connections answer has increased dramatically compared to yesterday's answer, with the Connections Companion rating this puzzle at 3.4 out of 5 for difficulty.

We update our Connections clues and hints daily. And if the hints aren't enough, see the four answers below, 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 433.

There are spoilers for connection #434. 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. [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...]