NYT Connections Answer & Hints for August 21, 2025 — Puzzle #802

Stuck on this Connections? Below you’ll get an intro, many definitions, hints, category titles, one “nudge” word per category, and the full solution.

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About Today’s Connections Puzzle

Puzzle #802 (published August 21, 2025) challenges you with four groups: one about mistakes, one about imagination, one about antenna-like things, and one with “doodle” pairings. Cultural references make this one trickier than usual.

Definitions of the 16 Words

Alphabetical to minimize spoilers:

Word	Short definition
BOO-BOO	A mistake; also a minor injury to skin.
CHEESE	A dairy product; also used in phrases like “Cheese doodle.”
DREAM	A series of thoughts, images, or sensations during sleep; a vision or ambition.
DIPSY	A Teletubby character; used here in the doodle-pairings category.
FLUB	An embarrassing mistake.
GAFFE	A social mistake or blunder; a faux pas.
GOOGLE	To search on the internet; also a tech company.
INSECT	A small arthropod animal with antennae (e.g. ants, bees, etc.).
LA-LA	A phrase indicating fantasy or escapism (“la-la land”).
NEVER NEVER	A phrase meaning “not ever; absolutely not.”
NO-NO	Something that is disallowed or frowned upon; also means mistake.
RADIO TOWER	A tall structure that facilitates radio broadcasting.
SATELLITE DISH	A dish antenna that receives signals from satellites.
TELETUBBY	A character from the children’s show Teletubbies; has an antenna-like feature.
YANKEE	A member of the New York Yankees baseball team; also a word used in phrases.
FANTASY	A genre of imaginative fiction involving magic or the unreal.