NYT Connections June 4: Art, Spirit, Hip‑Hop, Ghost Groups

The daily Connections puzzle from The New York Times presented a challenging set of word groupings for players on Thursday, June 4. The puzzle requires players to correctly sort sixteen words into four hidden categories based on common themes, with difficulty tiers color-coded from yellow to purple.

Today's puzzle featured categories ranging from artistic techniques to wordplay involving the word "ghost." The yellow group, typically the easiest, consisted of words related to painting media: acrylic, gouache, oil, and tempera. The green group centered on words denoting spirit or flair: esprit, gusto, panache, and verve. The blue category required knowledge of classic hip-hop groups, linking the words beastie, public, run, and salt as the beginnings of group names like Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, Run-D.M.C., and Salt-N-Pepa.

The most difficult purple category involved a wordplay theme where each word could be paired with "ghost" to form a common phrase or term. The correct grouping was kitchen, pepper, town, and writer, forming "ghost kitchen," "ghost pepper," "ghost town," and "ghost writer."

Players are allowed four incorrect attempts before the game ends. The puzzle resets...