You wake up, grab your coffee, and open the NYT Games app only to find a grid that looks like a bartender’s shopping list. It happens to the best of us. Today’s nyt connections hints june 21 puzzle (Game #741) is a classic example of Wyna Liu’s favorite hobby: making you think you see a pattern that absolutely isn't there. Honestly, if you jumped straight for the drinks, you probably saw that "One Away" message mocking you almost immediately.
The board is a minefield of liquid courage. STOUT, CIDER, PORT, BRANDY, and MALT are all sitting there, staring you in the face. It’s tempting. It’s also a total lie.
The Trouble With The "Booze" Category
If you try to group all the alcoholic terms together, you're going to run out of lives fast. This is the hallmark of a difficult Connections day. The editor uses "overlap" to force you to look deeper at the definitions. For instance, while STOUT can be a delicious dark beer, it also describes a person's physical build.
Similarly, PORT is a fortified wine, but in the context of today’s Purple category, it’s actually a geographic fragment. If you’re stuck on the booze, try to pivot. Look at the words that don’t fit the bar scene. What do you do with SQUAT or THICK? Once you start pulling those away, the real groups begin to emerge from the haze.
Quick Hints for June 21
Sometimes you just need a nudge, not the whole answer. If you're looking for the nyt connections hints june 21 to keep your streak alive without feeling like you cheated, here is the breakdown:
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- Yellow: Think about how you’d describe a very sturdy, heavy-set furniture piece or even a person.
- Green: These are formal names for a business or a professional organization.
- Blue: Every one of these is something you can make using apples. Yes, the fruit.
- Purple: This is the "wordplay" category. Look at the first four letters of European countries.
Today’s Connections Groups (Spoilers Below)
If you've reached the "I'm about to throw my phone" stage, here is the full breakdown of the categories for Saturday, June 21, 2025.
Yellow: Stocky
These are synonyms for a heavy, solid build.
- SOLID
- SQUAT
- STOUT
- THICK
Green: Company
Basically, different ways to say "business entity."
- CONCERN
- FIRM
- HOUSE
- OUTFIT
Blue: Apple Products
No, not the iPhone. These are things literally made from the fruit.
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- BRANDY (Calvados, anyone?)
- BUTTER
- CIDER
- SAUCE
Purple: Starts of European Countries
This is the trickiest group today. Each word is the beginning of a nation.
- GERM (Germany)
- LUXE (Luxembourg)
- MALT (Malta)
- PORT (Portugal)
How to Solve Puzzles with High Overlap
When you see a board like this one for June 21, the best strategy is the "Isolation Play." Identify the words that seem the most "homeless." LUXE and GERM are weird words. They don't naturally fit into "Stocky" or "Business." When you find those outliers, ask yourself what they could be fragments of.
Most players lose because they commit to a "fake" category—like the alcohol one today—and refuse to let it go. If you’ve tried three combinations of a group and keep getting "One Away," the group itself is likely wrong. Today, the "Alcohol" trap was designed to hide the "Apple Products" and "European Countries" groups.
Final Insights for Today's Grid
The difficulty of nyt connections hints june 21 really comes down to whether you can separate STOUT from the drinks and PORT from the wine. If you can do that, the rest of the board falls into place. The Green category (Company) was actually surprisingly formal today; using CONCERN or OUTFIT to mean a business isn't exactly common slang, but it's very common in "New York Times" style prose.
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To improve your game for tomorrow, start by scanning the board for words with multiple meanings. If you see a word like FIRM, immediately think: is it an adjective (hard) or a noun (business)? Clearing that mental hurdle early prevents you from falling for the red herrings.
Check your grid again. If you still have MALT and PORT left over, remember they are just pieces of a larger map.
Next Steps for Players:
- Isolate the fragments: Look at GERM and LUXE—now that you know they are countries, look for other fragments like MALT (Malta) to finish the Purple set.
- Verify the Apple group: Make sure you didn't accidentally put STOUT in the Apple group; while some cider is stout-like, it belongs in the "Stocky" category.
- Finalize the Business group: Use CONCERN and OUTFIT last, as they are often the words that trip people up in the Green category.