You’re staring at a grid of 16 words. Your coffee is getting cold. The NYT Connections hints July 23 puzzle just dropped, and honestly, it’s a bit of a nightmare. Not because it’s impossible, but because it literally features nightmares.
Wyna Liu, the mastermind editor behind this daily obsession, really leaned into the "tricky" aspect for Puzzle #773. If you’ve been playing for a while, you know the drill. Yellow is the "easy" stuff, green is moderate, blue is the head-scratcher, and purple? Purple is usually where your win streak goes to die. Today was no different.
The July 23 board felt like a weird fever dream mixing a backyard barbecue, a real estate office, and a haunted house. If you struggled, don't feel bad. You’re definitely not alone.
Breaking Down the July 23 Board
Sometimes the words just don't click. You see "Flatiron" and think of New York City landmarks or hair tools. Then you see "Tomahawk" and think of history or maybe a sports team. But then you notice "Porterhouse" and suddenly, you’re hungry.
That’s how this game works. It hijacks your first instinct and forces you to look sideways.
The Yellow Group: Dread-Inducing Figures
This one was arguably the most straightforward, provided you grew up with folklore or horror movies. We’re talking about the things that go bump in the night.
- BOGEYMAN
- BUGBEAR
- HOBGOBLIN
- PHANTOM
Most people snagged this one first. The only real "trap" here was "Bugbear." In modern slang, a bugbear is just a minor annoyance—like people who don’t use turn signals. But in the context of legendary monsters, it fits perfectly with the Hobgoblin.
🔗 Read more: Nancy Drew Video Games: Why We Still Can’t Stop Snooping
The Green Group: Kinds of Steaks
If you’re a vegetarian, this category was probably a massive pain. For the carnivores, it was a layup.
- CHATEAUBRIAND
- FLATIRON
- PORTERHOUSE
- TOMAHAWK
"Chateaubriand" is a fancy way of saying a large cut of tenderloin. "Flatiron" and "Tomahawk" are both trendy cuts you’ll see at high-end steakhouses. The brilliance of this group was putting "Tomahawk" in there, which often gets confused with the "Bogeyman" group or even the "Animals" group if you’re thinking about tools or weapons.
The Tricky Stuff: Blue and Purple
This is where the July 23 puzzle got genuinely mean. The overlap between real-life responsibilities and linguistic wordplay is where most players lost their hearts.
The Blue Group: Related to Buying a Home
Adulting is hard. This category proved it.
- APPRAISAL
- ESCROW
- INSURANCE
- MORTGAGE
"Escrow" is one of those words that only exists when you’re buying a house or getting scammed on the internet. Pairing it with "Mortgage" makes sense, but "Insurance" is such a broad term it could have fit elsewhere if the puzzle had a "Safety" theme.
The Purple Group: Animals Ending with Animals
This was the absolute "Aha!" moment (or the "I give up" moment) of the day.
- GEODUCK
- SEAHORSE
- TITMOUSE
- WOMBAT
Read those words again. Geo-DUCK. Sea-HORSE. Tit-MOUSE. Wom-BAT.
It’s classic Wyna Liu. She loves to pull words apart and see if you’re paying attention to the suffix. A Geoduck (pronounced "gooey-duck") is a giant clam, but linguistically, it ends in "duck." A Titmouse is a bird, not a rodent, but there’s that "mouse" sitting at the end. It’s devious.
Why July 23 Felt Different
What most people get wrong about Connections is thinking it’s a vocabulary test. It isn't. It’s a pattern-recognition test. On July 23, the board was heavily weighted with "creature" words. You had Bogeyman, Hobgoblin, Phantom, Geoduck, Seahorse, Titmouse, and Wombat. That’s seven words that all point toward living (or undead) things.
The secret to winning this specific game was realizing that the "monsters" stayed together, and the "real animals" were actually a wordplay trap.
Strategy Tips for Next Time
- The "One-Away" Trap: If you get the "One Away" notification, don't just swap one word for another randomly. Look at the type of word. On July 23, if you tried to put "Geoduck" in the monster group, the game would tell you you’re close. That’s your signal that "Geoduck" is an outlier.
- Say it Out Loud: Seriously. If you say "Titmouse" and "Wombat" out loud, you might hear the "mouse" and "bat" hidden inside.
- Shuffle is your Friend: The default layout is designed to put "Porterhouse" near "Mortgage" to make you think about money or business. Hit shuffle. Break the visual spell.
Actionable Insights for Daily Players
If you want to protect your streak, start by identifying the "Double Agents"—words that fit in two places. "Flatiron" could be a building or a steak. "Phantom" could be a ghost or a Rolls Royce model. Once you identify those, don't commit to a group until you see where the other meaning might land.
For the July 23 puzzle, the takeaway is clear: always look for compound words or hidden words within words. The Purple category almost always relies on some form of "Words that start with..." or "Words that contain..." logic.
Go back and look at your results from today. Did you fall for the animal trap? If so, start practicing by looking at every word on tomorrow's board and asking: "Is this word actually two words in a trench coat?"
✨ Don't miss: Why Every Picture of Monopoly Board You See Is Basically a Lie
That's the only way to beat the NYT at its own game.