Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a bit tricky. Hope you know your car-race details! Read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is out of beta now, making its debut on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9. That’s a sign that the game has earned enough loyal players that The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times, will continue to publish it. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but now appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can continue to play it free online.  

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: H-town.

Green group hint: Grab your bat.

Blue group hint: Young signal-callers.

Purple group hint: Racing supporters.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Houston teams.

Green group: Hitting statistics.

Blue group: NFL rookie QBs.

Purple group: NASCAR Cup Series sponsors, over time.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is Houston teams. The four answers are Astros, Dash, Dynamo and Texans.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is hitting statistics. The four answers are average, home run, RBI and run.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is NFL rookie QBs. The four answers are Dart, Sanders, Shough and Ward.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is NASCAR Cup Series sponsors, over time.  The four answers are Monster Energy, Nextel, Sprint and Winston.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is a tough one. I had to rack my brain to unscramble a few of the answers. If you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story. 

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Cutting it close.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Snip-snip.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

• RIPE, CARB, RARE, PATE, PEAT, TAPE, HOPS, SHOP, SHOPS, PACE, SLICE, LICE, CARE

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

• CAPE, COMB, RAZOR, TRIMMER, CLIPPERS, AFTERSHAVE

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is BARBERSHOP. To find it, look for the B that’s three letters over and two letters down from the upper left corner, and wind almost straight down.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Wordle puzzle is another tough one, I thought. Even if you guess the right vowel, the consonants aren’t very common letters. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.

Today’s Wordle hints

Before we show you today’s Wordle answer, we’ll give you some hints. If you don’t want a spoiler, look away now.

Wordle hint No. 1: Repeats

Today’s Wordle answer has one repeated letter.

Wordle hint No. 2: Vowels

Today’s Wordle answer has one vowel, but it’s the repeated letter, so you’ll see it twice.

Wordle hint No. 3: Start letter

Today’s Wordle answer begins with R.

Wordle hint No. 4: Placement

The repeated vowel in today’s Wordle answer shows up in the second and fourth spot in the word.

Wordle hint No. 5: Meaning

Today’s Wordle answer can refer to something that is inflexible and cannot be bent.

TODAY’S WORDLE ANSWER

Today’s Wordle answer is RIGID.

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle answer, Aug. 3, No. 1506 was LUMPY.

Recent Wordle answers

July 30, No. 1502: ASSAY

July 31, No. 1503: FRILL

Aug. 1, No. 1504: BANJO

Aug. 2, No. 1505: DAUNT