NYT Connections Answers Today (July 31): From ‘First Aid’ To ‘Last Supper’, Here Are All The Hints You Need

NYT Connections Answer Today: The New York Times’ increasingly popular daily brainteaser Connections returned with a thematic twist today, challenging players to spot a numerical countdown cleverly disguised in wordplay. Puzzle #780, released on Thursday, July 31, leaned into a sequential structure, pushing players to think beyond surface-level similarities.
As always, the grid featured 16 seemingly unrelated words: Rock, Straw, Eye, Nature, Nations, Fiddle, Guess, Laugh, Coming, Party, Resort, Responder, Lady, Supper, Rail, and Aid. But as many seasoned solvers would tell you, in Connections, the trick is to find what truly links four words together, and it’s rarely as simple as it first seems.
<h3 data-start=”876″ data-end=”925″>The themes: A countdown hiding in plain sight</h3>
Today’s four groups followed a deceptively simple theme structure: each one related to an ordinal number, First, Second, Third, and Last, but figuring that out required more than just a hunch.
According to the official solution, the yellow category (usually the easiest) was First ___, featuring the words Aid, Lady, Nations, and Responder. The green group, Second ___, included Coming, Fiddle, Guess, and Nature. The blue category, typically trickier, was Third ___ and tied together Eye, Party, Rail, and Rock. Finally, the purple, the most cryptic of all, landed on Last ___, linking Laugh, Resort, Straw, and Supper.
<h3 data-start=”1602″ data-end=”1647″>A few nudges to help you connect the dots</h3>
For those stuck along the way, the puzzle offered a series of layered hints. “Look for a single word to add in front of each group member,” one clue suggested, a classic Connections strategy. Another teased, “More than just the words within the theme, the themes themselves are related.”
Additional nudges hinted that the green group involved “the runner-up,” while blue leaned toward ideas like Earth and supernatural perception. The final purple group, appropriately enough, was simply referred to as “the final group.”
<h3 data-start=”2177″ data-end=”2203″>Why this one stood out</h3>
What made today’s puzzle particularly satisfying for solvers was the layered elegance of its theme. While many Connections puzzles focus on pop culture, puns, or abstract groupings, #780 offered a rare structural cohesion: four categories that stacked neatly in a conceptual sequence. The challenge wasn’t just to spot similar words, it was to recognise the countdown built into the categories themselves.
And as always, solvers had only four chances to make mistakes before the game auto-revealed the answers. With red herrings like Laugh and Party pulling players in multiple directions, today’s game proved especially satisfying to crack.
Connections, which joins the ranks of Wordle and Spelling Bee in the NYT’s roster of daily word games, continues to capture fans with its balance of logic, lateral thinking, and the occasional linguistic trap.
You can try your luck with the next puzzle tomorrow, and if you’re still new to the game, remember: it’s not just about knowing words. It’s about seeing the hidden links.