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NYT Connections #409 was published on Wednesday, July 24, 2024. The answers split into joking around, poultry cuts, baby animals, and ways to push through a crowd. The biggest traps were KID, which competed with the baby-animal terms, and several words that looked like body parts.
NYT Connections #409 was published on Wednesday, July 24, 2024. The puzzle’s main challenge was semantic overlap: KID looked like a baby animal, while RIB, THIGH, MUSCLE, and SHOULDER could all suggest body parts or anatomy. The cleanest first group was the poultry cuts: BREAST, TENDER, THIGH, and WING.
Hints for Connections #409
These clues are arranged in the NYT Connections color order. They do not reveal the words immediately, but they should narrow the possibilities:
- Yellow: Joke around with someone.
- Green: Cuts of a bird commonly sold or served as food.
- Blue: Young animals, with several species-specific names.
- Purple: Ways to force or maneuver through a crowd.
Spoiler warning: The complete groups and explanations appear below.
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NYT Connections #409 answers for July 24, 2024
| Color | Category | Words |
|---|---|---|
| Yellow | Joke around with | KID, RAZZ, RIB, TEASE |
| Green | Poultry cuts | BREAST, TENDER, THIGH, WING |
| Blue | Baby animals | CALF, CUB, FAWN, KIT |
| Purple | Push through a crowd | BARGE, JOSTLE, MUSCLE, SHOULDER |
Yellow: JOKE AROUND WITH — KID, RAZZ, RIB, TEASE
As verbs, kid, razz, rib, and tease can all mean to joke with or playfully bother someone. For example, someone might “rib” a friend about a harmless mistake or “kid” someone by pretending to be serious.
KID was the key trap in this group. Its more familiar noun meaning points toward a young animal, making it tempting to place with CALF, CUB, and FAWN. But that would leave the animal group incomplete and create a better four-word set elsewhere.
Green: POULTRY CUTS — BREAST, TENDER, THIGH, WING
Breast, tender, thigh, and wing are all common poultry or chicken cuts. “Tender” refers to a breast tender or tenderloin, rather than describing the texture of one of the other entries. This is the most literal food-related connection in the puzzle and a useful place to begin solving.
The group also demonstrates why individual words can be misleading. THIGH is plainly a body-part word in many contexts, but alongside BREAST and WING it forms a recognizable set of chicken cuts. USDA retail terminology separately recognizes breast, breast tenders, thighs, and wings as common chicken products, supporting this reading.
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CALF is a young bovine and can also refer to the young of several other large mammals. A CUB is the young of various carnivorous mammals, while a FAWN is a young deer. A KIT is the young of certain animals, including foxes.
KIT may be the least familiar word for some players, but it is the intended fourth answer here. The distinction between KIT and KID is central to the puzzle: both can appear to belong in a group of young animals, but KID is needed for the “joke around with” category.
Purple: PUSH THROUGH A CROWD — BARGE, JOSTLE, MUSCLE, SHOULDER
BARGE, JOSTLE, MUSCLE, and SHOULDER can all describe forcing or maneuvering one’s way through a group of people. To barge through is to move forcefully or rudely; to jostle is to push or bump against others; and to muscle through means to force one’s way.
Shoulder works as a verb in the sense of pushing or moving through with the shoulder. It is another deliberate decoy because it can initially look like a body-part answer alongside BREAST and THIGH.
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Why Connections #409 was tricky
The difficulty came less from obscure trivia than from words with several ordinary meanings. The puzzle gives you multiple plausible partial groups:
- KID can mean a child, a young goat, or to joke with someone.
- KIT is a less obvious baby-animal term, especially compared with KID.
- RIB can suggest anatomy or food, but here it is a verb meaning to tease.
- BREAST, THIGH, and WING can look like body-part words before the poultry-cut pattern is recognized.
- MUSCLE and SHOULDER can also appear to belong to an anatomy group, but both function as verbs in the final category.
A reliable way through this board is to favor a complete, specific category over a loose association. Once BREAST, TENDER, THIGH, and WING are removed, the teasing verbs become clearer. That leaves the four baby-animal terms and the crowd-movement verbs without needing to force a body-part category.
Want more Connections-style puzzles?
If you enjoy the game but want something away from a screen, Puzzle Mania! is an optional hardcover collection from The New York Times Games and Joel Fagliano. The publisher describes it as an offline collection built around familiar games including Connections, along with other word puzzles. It is not required to solve Connections #409, and this recommendation does not establish that the book contains this specific puzzle; check the retailer listing for current price and availability.
All 16 words from Connections #409
KID, CALF, THIGH, KIT, TENDER, SHOULDER, MUSCLE, RIB, FAWN, TEASE, JOSTLE, CUB, BREAST, BARGE, RAZZ, WING.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What was the yellow group in Connections #409?
KID, RAZZ, RIB, and TEASE all mean to joke around with or playfully bother someone.
Why was KID not in the baby-animals group?
CALF, CUB, FAWN, and KIT were the baby-animal terms. KID was the red herring because it can also mean a young animal.
What was the purple group in Connections #409?
The purple group was BARGE, JOSTLE, MUSCLE, and SHOULDER, all describing ways to force or maneuver through a crowd.
The Bottom Line
The solution to NYT Connections #409, published July 24, 2024, was KID, RAZZ, RIB, TEASE for joking around; BREAST, TENDER, THIGH, WING for poultry cuts; CALF, CUB, FAWN, KIT for baby animals; and BARGE, JOSTLE, MUSCLE, SHOULDER for pushing through a crowd.
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