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Friday, August 9, 2024, was NYT Connections puzzle #425. If you are still solving it, use the hints below in order before opening the spoiler section. The four categories are built around absence, support, rock music, and phrases beginning with “shock.”
Hints for Connections #425
Connections asks you to sort 16 words into four groups of four. Each group has one shared connection. The colors traditionally indicate difficulty tiers—yellow, green, blue, and purple—not the importance of the categories.
Try these clues without looking at the answers:
- Yellow: One group describes a person or thing that is not there.
- Green: One group contains words for someone who supports a cause, person, idea, or team.
- Blue: One group consists of rock styles or subgenres.
- Purple: One group completes the phrase “SHOCK ___”.
A useful solving route
If phrase completions come naturally to you, start with the purple group. Horror, jock, value, and wave all form familiar expressions after “shock.” Removing those four leaves a clean division among words related to absence, support, and rock music.
The most deceptive word is likely EXPONENT. In mathematics, an exponent is a number showing a power, but the word also means a person who advocates or represents an idea. That less-common meaning places it with ADVOCATE, CHAMPION, and CHEERLEADER.
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The complete solution for Friday, August 9, 2024, is below.
Yellow: NOT PRESENT
- ABSENT
- ELSEWHERE
- GONE
- MIA
These words describe someone or something that is missing or not at the relevant location. MIA means “missing in action,” while ELSEWHERE indicates that something is in another place.
Green: SUPPORTER
- ADVOCATE
- CHAMPION
- CHEERLEADER
- EXPONENT
Each word can describe a person who publicly supports a person, cause, team, idea, or position. Here, EXPONENT is used in the sense of an advocate or representative—not its mathematical meaning.
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Blue: ROCK GENRES
- GLAM
- GOTH
- METAL
- PUNK
These are shortened references to rock-related genres or scenes: glam rock, gothic rock, heavy metal, and punk rock. Because the category is broad, some of these words can invite misleading associations with other entries.
Purple: SHOCK ___
- HORROR
- JOCK
- VALUE
- WAVE
All four complete a phrase beginning with “shock”: shock horror, shock jock, shock value, and shock wave. This phrase-based group is often the quickest to confirm once you notice the pattern.
Why this puzzle can be tricky
The board combines short, flexible words with several meanings. Glam, goth, metal, and punk are recognizable as music terms, but each can also be used more broadly. The supporter category is similarly broad, and EXPONENT may not immediately look like a synonym for advocate.
The safest approach is to require four words to satisfy the same interpretation before submitting a group. In particular, do not lock in a three-word pattern simply because the individual words seem related; Connections is designed to leave plausible overlaps on the board.
Want more Connections puzzles?
The publisher lists Connections: Find the Common Threads in 100+ Puzzles of Wit and Wordplay, by The New York Times Games and Wyna Liu, as a 192-page hardcover containing more than 100 original puzzles. It is an optional source of offline practice and is not the same as archived puzzle #425. The publisher’s listed publication date is October 27, 2026, so availability may depend on the date and retailer.
A broader collection, Puzzle Mania!: Wordle, Connections, Spelling Bee, Minis and More!, includes Connections-related material alongside other New York Times games, but it is a less targeted choice for readers specifically looking for Connections practice.
Playing older Connections puzzles
The New York Times Help Center says that a new Connections puzzle is released at midnight in the player’s local time zone. It also says the archive is available to eligible Games subscribers. If you want to revisit #425 or work through other past puzzles, access will therefore depend on your account and subscription eligibility.
About NYT Connections
Connections is a daily New York Times word game in which players sort 16 words into four groups of four. The game launched in beta on June 12, 2023, and was created for New York Times Games by puzzle editor Wyna Liu.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What was the answer to NYT Connections #425 on August 9, 2024?
The categories were NOT PRESENT: ABSENT, ELSEWHERE, GONE, MIA; SUPPORTER: ADVOCATE, CHAMPION, CHEERLEADER, EXPONENT; ROCK GENRES: GLAM, GOTH, METAL, PUNK; and SHOCK ___: HORROR, JOCK, VALUE, WAVE.
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In this puzzle, EXPONENT means a person who advocates or represents an idea or position. It is not being used in its mathematical sense.
What does MIA mean in NYT Connections?
MIA is an abbreviation for “missing in action,” so it belongs in the NOT PRESENT group.
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Can I play archived Connections puzzles?
The New York Times Help Center says its Connections archive is available to eligible Games subscribers. Access depends on the account and subscription terms in effect.
The Bottom Line
Connections #425, played Friday, August 9, 2024, grouped the words into NOT PRESENT, SUPPORTER, ROCK GENRES, and SHOCK ___. The key difficulty was recognizing EXPONENT as “advocate” and separating the broad rock-genre group from tempting alternative connections.
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