NYT Connections, Strands and Quordle answers for Thursday, October 1

In Connections #1208, players were asked to sort 16 words into four categories. TechRadar reported that the yellow group, described as manoeuvre into a spot where it belongs, was PUT, made up of PLACE, POSITION, SITUATE and STICK. The green group, required for sharp dressing, was DRESS SHIRT MEASUREMENTS, with CHEST, NECK, SLEEVE and WAIST. The blue group, alt rock with something missing, was 2000S INDIE ROCK BANDS, WITH THE: DECEMBERISTS, NATIONAL, SHINS and WALKMEN. The purple group, a puzzling beginning, was STARTS OF NYT PRINT PUZZLES: ACRO, CROSS, KEN and SUD. TechRadar rated the puzzle Easy and reported a perfect score. The reviewer noted that the purple group was very meta because an online game paid homage to the NYT's offline puzzles, and that the group initially went over the reviewer's head. The reviewer also highlighted the appearance of The National, one of the reviewer's favorite bands, in the blue group.

For Strands #942, the theme was Things fall apart. TechRadar reported that the answers were BREAK, CRUMBLE, COLLAPSE, DISSOLVE and FRAGMENT, with the spangram BEYONDREPAIR. The spangram has 12 letters and touches the left side at the third row and the right side at the eighth row, according to TechRadar. The article listed OBEY, CRUEL, CORN, SLAP, REAL and MATES as clue words that can unlock the in-game hints system. TechRadar rated the puzzle Hard and reported a score of two hints. The reviewer said the spangram came after stages of finding pair, then repair, then on repair, and finally BEYONDREPAIR, and that gameplay felt similarly fragmented afterward. The reviewer also mentioned wabi-sabi, a Japanese term for finding beauty in natural decay and weathering, contrasting it with Western views of things falling apart.

In Quordle #1711, TechRadar reported that the answers were NAVEL, SHEER, BIRTH and TACKY. Hints published before the answers showed three different vowels, one answer containing a repeated letter, no Q, Z, X or J, and no answers starting with the same letter. The starting letters were N, S, B and T. TechRadar's writer said that when stuck on a word with a missing letter, the key is invariably the letter V, and that after two years of playing Quordle the writer still ignored it, spending ages ruling out other combinations before finding NAVEL. The Daily Sequence for game #1711 had the answers CLUNG, SLURP, WHEAT and RECAP. TechRadar also listed the past 20 Quordle answers, including Quordle #1710 on Wednesday, September 30: CHOKE, BATCH, MOSSY and EAGER.

The NYT Games site offers Connections, Strands and Quordle for free on desktop and mobile, according to TechRadar. Each new puzzle appears at midnight in the player's time zone, so some players are always playing today's game while others are playing yesterday's. The articles included spoiler warnings before the answer sections.