Looking for today's Connections answer for puzzle #440 from August 24, which drops three places down from yesterday's answer, the Connections companion rates the difficulty of this puzzle at 24 out of 5

We update our Connections hints and tips 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 have included a reflection on yesterday's puzzle 439

There are spoilers for connection #440 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 to know the answer, scroll down further

There is a bigger clue While renting a car, remember the periodic table and have a little gossip

Now for the answer to today's game #440 Connection

Drum roll please

Finally It has been a week of struggling with puzzles of difficulty 2 and breaking down puzzles of difficulty 3 Today's was smooth sailing on difficulty 2 You have to win when you can

Anyway, today I started in the yellow category This was after a moment of thinking about piecing together some story, Latin, or technical terminology, but I skipped that thought

I was in the middle of putting together cheap connections on budget, steal, and thrifty when suddenly I found myself looking at car rental companies on Enterprise and National Sometimes the brain surprises you

Today's green category could have easily been yellow, but creeps, slips, steals, and tip-toes are all stealth moves

Personally, I rarely delete letters or parts of words to find another connection So I am always relieved when I don't attack a bad connection to try to push it into another grouping

Today's purple is the chemical elements: Env (iron), J (argon), La (tin), P (lead)

You are reading this late in the day According to Connections Companion, the difficulty level was 36 out of 5

My yo-yo this week is struggling on level 2 difficulty, but knocking down on level 3 difficulty

When I was younger, I had a number of performer friends who were into burlesque, so boas, corsets, fans, and gloves were an easy first category Feathers are not lacking

From there, displays, monitors, screens, terminals, and the yellow category was created

I got stuck on the blue category because I had never heard of buff as a beige shade, let alone as a color I combined it with cream, fawn, and tan because none of the other words fit the color wheel

Trying to successfully connect the nails with finish, buff, tan, and basque was a mistake However, it did lead to seeing color

I had never seen the purple category of homonyms, but I knew when I put them together in the last category BASK (Basque), CHECK (Czech), FINISH (Finnish), TIE (Thai) and clever