Wyna Liu must be laughing. Honestly, there is no other explanation for why the April 8 puzzle (Game #667) is laid out exactly the way it is. If you opened your grid today and immediately saw a group of suave British men staring back at you, you aren't alone. You’ve probably already hovered your finger over the screen, ready to lock in a category for "Actors Who Played James Bond."
Stop.
Take a breath.
If you click Daniel, Pierce, Sean, and Roger right now, you are going to lose a life. It is the ultimate red herring—a classic New York Times move that punishes you for being too observant of the obvious and not observant enough of the subtle. This is the "Bond Trap," and it’s the reason social media is currently a minefield of digital frustration.
The Brutal Red Herring in Today's Grid
Usually, a red herring is one or two words. Today, it’s an entire set. Daniel (Craig), Pierce (Brosnan), Sean (Connery), and Roger (Moore) are all right there. It’s perfect. It’s too perfect.
In the world of Connections, if a category feels like a "gimme," it’s almost certainly a lie. The game is designed to test your ability to pivot. When you see four words that fit a theme perfectly, you have to ask yourself: "What else could these words be?"
Take Sean and Roger, for instance. They feel like they belong together because of 007, but if you look closer at the other 14 words, you’ll start to see patterns that have nothing to do with MI6.
NYT Connections Hints April 8
If you're stuck and don't want the full reveal yet, here are some nudges to get your brain moving in the right direction.
Yellow Category Hint: Think about what happens when you get a vaccine or accidentally lean against a cactus. It’s a sharp, quick sensation. These four words are all basically different ways to describe a small puncture.
Green Category Hint: "10-4, good buddy." If you grew up watching movies about long-haul truckers or police procedurals, this group should start to click. These are the words used to ensure clarity over a crackling radio frequency.
Blue Category Hint: Dust off your Sunday School knowledge. This group is strictly for the bibliophiles, specifically those familiar with the first half of the most famous book in history. These are all titles of books found in the Old Testament.
Purple Category Hint: This is the "Wyna Liu special." It has nothing to do with what the words mean and everything to do with how they sound. Say them out loud. Not in your head—actually out loud. Notice a specific "shhh" sound? Now look at the spelling.
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Today’s Connections Answers (Game #667)
If you’ve run out of guesses or you’re just tired of staring at the screen, here is how the 16 words actually break down.
Yellow: Prick
- JAB
- PIERCE
- POKE
- STICK
- Expert Note: This is the most straightforward group. Pierce was the bait for the Bond category, but here it’s just a verb for making a hole.
Green: Radio Lingo
- COPY
- NEGATIVE
- OVER
- ROGER
- Expert Note: Roger is the second Bond actor to be "stolen" for a different category. In this context, it just means "received and understood."
Blue: Old Testament Books
- DANIEL
- JOB
- JUDGES
- NUMBERS
- Expert Note: Daniel is our third Bond actor. The real trick here is "Job." Many players will read it as /dʒɒb/ (a profession) instead of the biblical /dʒoʊb/.
Purple: Words Pronounced "Sh" Without an "Sh"
- SEAN
- SIOBHAN
- SUGAR
- SURE
- Expert Note: This is a brilliant category. Sean (the final Bond actor) and Siobhan are Irish names where the 'S' sounds like 'Sh.' Sugar and Sure do the same thing in standard English. It’s a linguistic pattern that is incredibly hard to see when you're distracted by movie stars.
Why Today Was Extra Tricky
The difficulty of NYT Connections April 8 comes down to "overlapping sets." In game design, this is called a "many-to-many" relationship.
Most people start at the top and work down. You see names, you think "People." But the game wants you to look at the words as abstract units of sound and history. If you look at the stats on the NYT Connections Bot, the "Bond Trap" is usually the number one reason for a "Game Over" today.
Also, Siobhan is a tough one if you aren't familiar with Irish phonetics. If you've never watched Succession, you might be wondering why that word is even on the board.
How to Beat Wyna Liu Tomorrow
To avoid falling for these traps in the future, you need a strategy change.
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- Don’t submit your first thought. If you find a group in ten seconds, it’s probably a trap.
- The "Fifth Word" Test. If you think you found a category, look for a fifth word that also fits. If there is a fifth word, the category you found is likely a red herring designed to make you waste guesses.
- Shuffle is your friend. Sometimes the grid is arranged to put "Daniel" and "Pierce" right next to each other. Hit that shuffle button to break the visual association.
- Say it out loud. As seen in the Purple category today, the way a word sounds is often more important than what it means.
If you struggled today, don't sweat it. This was one of the more "clever" grids we've seen in a while.
The best way to improve is to stop looking for what the words are and start looking for what they do. "Job" isn't just a career; it's a person in a book. "Sugar" isn't just a sweetener; it's a phonics outlier. Once you start thinking like the editor, the game gets a whole lot easier.
Keep an eye on the "sh" sounds and the biblical names—they tend to pop up more often than you'd think in the NYT ecosystem.
Check your grid again. If you managed to solve it without a single mistake, you're officially in the top tier of players. If not? Well, there's always tomorrow's puzzle to redeem your pride.
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Take these insights and apply them to your next session. Start by looking for the "hidden" definitions of common words before you commit to the obvious ones. This simple shift in perspective is usually the difference between a perfect score and a "Darn!" screen.