Quordle, Strands and Connections Answers for Wednesday, October 14

The four answers to Quordle game #1724 are TIMID, GROUP, GRILL and EVERY. Two of them begin with the same letter, and the opening letters are T, G, G and E. The puzzle contains four different standard vowels — A, E, I, O and U, excluding Y — and none of the letters Q, Z, X or J appears in any of the four answers. Three of the four solutions contain a repeated letter. The separate Quordle Daily Sequence, also numbered #1724, uses the answers BOOZY, PENCE, PHASE and SAFER.

NYT Strands game #955 carries the theme "Folk and fairy tale twosomes." Its six theme answers are BEAUTY, BEAST, FROG, PRINCESS, TORTOISE and HARE, paired as the familiar story couples. The spangram, the word that spans the board and states the theme, is ONCEUPONATIME and runs to 13 letters; it touches the left side of the seventh row and the bottom of the second column. Players can unlock the in-game hint system with the words CANE, TINT, METER, SHARE, TROT, STEM and TROOP. The puzzle was rated Easy and completed with a perfect score.

NYT Connections game #1221 asks players to sort 15 words into four groups. The words are FEED, THING, SERVE, SUGGESTION, FIERY, FLICKER, FLASH, FOMENT, SMASH, HULK, TRACE, FUMBLE, SLICE, WHIFF and VOLLEY. The yellow group, described in the hints as "a small reveal," is HINT, made up of FLICKER, SUGGESTION, TRACE and WHIFF. The green group, clued as "as seen at Wimbledon," is TENNIS SHOTS: SERVE, SLICE, SMASH and VOLLEY. The blue group, clued as "comic book champion," is SUPERHEROES, WITH "THE": FLASH, HULK, PUNISHER and THING. The purple group, clued as "a giant's saying at the start," collects words beginning with the sounds in "FEE, FI, FO, FUM": FEED, FIERY, FOMENT and FUMBLE. Like Strands, Connections was rated Easy and finished with a perfect score.

The previous day's puzzles, dated Tuesday, October 13, also have published answers. Strands game #954 used the theme answers EMBARRASS, APPALL, NONPLUS, CHAGRIN and MORTIFY, with CRINGEWORTHY as the spangram. Connections game #1220 grouped EYE, FLAIR, SENSE and TASTE under DISCERNMENT; HITCH, LASH, TETHER and TIE under FASTEN; BELT, CUP, JACKET and RING under SPORTS CHAMPIONSHIP PRIZES; and CANNON, CHANGE, ENDS and LIPS under LOOSE ___.

Quordle has now passed 1,500 daily games since launching as one of the first alternatives to Wordle. Strands sits alongside Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections in the New York Times games lineup and is played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile. Connections sorts its four groups by difficulty, from green as the easiest through yellow and blue to purple as the hardest; players may make up to four mistakes, and the final group can often be solved by elimination. All of the games are free to play online, and the answers in the TechRadar columns carry spoiler warnings above the solutions.