The July 11, 2024 Connections puzzle (#396) has four groups: SCHOOL SUPPLIES, FUNDAMENTAL, TRANSFER, and LIGHT-UP SIGNS. The hints below move from gentle to specific, and the full answers follow a spoiler break. Because July 11 falls on a different weekday in other years, make sure you are looking at the 2024 board before you use any answer.
Which puzzle this is
The title’s weekday points to July 11, 2024. Forbes (Kris Holt, dated July 10, 2024) and TechRadar (Marc McLaren, dated July 10, 2024) both identify this as puzzle #396, and Parade (Kelsey Pelzer, July 11, 2024) gives the same number and date. Search results also surface July 11 puzzles from other years, and those boards are different. If the words on your screen do not match the 16-word board listed below, you are looking at another date’s puzzle.
How the game works
Connections gives you a bank of 16 words. Your job is to sort them into four groups of four words that share a common link. TechRadar notes that you can make up to four mistakes before the game ends. You can play through NYT Games on desktop or on mobile. Check the NYT Games site for current access terms, since subscription and availability details change over time and were not verified for this article.
Hints, from gentlest to most specific
Read these one at a time. Each hint targets one group, so you can stop as soon as the group clicks.
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- SCHOOL SUPPLIES: “Pack your bag” (TechRadar) or “What you might put in a backpack” (Parade).
- FUNDAMENTAL: “This is important” (TechRadar) or “Foundational” (Parade).
- TRANSFER: “Take this” (TechRadar) or “An exchange of some sort” (Parade).
- LIGHT-UP SIGNS: “Up in lights” (TechRadar) or “Certain directions or information given” (Parade).
Spoiler break: the answers
Forbes and TechRadar publish the complete board and solutions, and Parade independently confirms the categories and groups. The four groups are:
| Category | Words |
|---|---|
| SCHOOL SUPPLIES | PEN, RULER, SCISSORS, TAPE |
| FUNDAMENTAL | ESSENTIAL, KEY, PRINCIPAL, STAPLE |
| TRANSFER | GIVE, HAND, PASS, SEND |
| LIGHT-UP SIGNS | APPLAUSE, EXIT, RECORDING, WALK |
The full 16-word board
The board, as published in the Forbes and TechRadar guides, is: TAPE, RECORDING, HAND, SEND, APPLAUSE, KEY, PASS, PRINCIPAL, RULER, WALK, STAPLE, PEN, ESSENTIAL, SCISSORS, GIVE, EXIT.
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Why the overlaps make this tricky
Several words could fit more than one group. STAPLE can mean a school supply, and it also means a fundamental element. KEY and PRINCIPAL can both sound like “most important.” PASS, GIVE, HAND, and SEND all fit TRANSFER, which makes it easy to lock in a wrong group early. If you have one group that feels uncertain, solve the LIGHT-UP SIGNS group first, because APPLAUSE, EXIT, RECORDING, and WALK have the least overlap with the other groups.
The puzzle format itself is a puzzle-design problem: a single word can point in several directions, and the solver has to find the link that fits all four words in a group.
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