NYT Connections · #1110

NYT Connections Hints & Answers (#1110) — June 25, 2026

By Sneha Rajput·June 25, 2026

“Lock in the two obvious groups first, then use what's left to crack the harder ones — the remaining eight words will make the trickier connections much clearer.LEAD has appeared many times before — most recently in Connections #1181 (Jun 22, 2026) as a word meaning dominant, and before that in Connections #449 (Aug 12, 2024) among metal elements.”

NYT Connections hints for June 25, 2026

Three levels of help — a definition for every word, colour-coded group nudges, and a heads-up on the traps. Skip to all answers →

Word clues

A spoiler-free definition for every word in the grid. Tap the eye on any card to reveal which colour-group it belongs to.

1 COMPACTTightly arranged with no wasted space — nothing to do with makeup or cars here.

2 COMPRESSEDSqueezed down into a smaller form — the puzzle wants the physical sense, not the file-size one.

3 CRANIUMStarts with CRANE — CRANium sounds like CRANE+ium; the skull meaning is pure misdirection.

4 CROQUETTEStarts with CROW — CROquette sounds like CROW+quette; the fried food is the bait.

5 DENSEPacked closely together — not the insult meaning slow, and not a property of lead specifically.

6 DUCTILEStarts with DUCK — DUCtile sounds like DUCK+tile; the metallurgy definition is irrelevant here.

7 FRANCIUMA highly radioactive alkali metal — the least familiar of the four, which makes it the safest pick here.

8 HOCKEYStarts with HAWK — HOCKey sounds like HAWK+ey; the sport is the obvious misdirection.

9 LEADThe heavy grey metal (Pb) — extremely easy to misread as the verb meaning to guide, which is how it has appeared in most of its previous Connections outings.

10 MERCURYThe only metal that is liquid at room temperature (Hg) — also a planet and a god, which is the bait.

11 MICROPHONEAn input device that captures your voice for the computer.

12 MONITORThe screen you stare at all day — looks like a verb meaning to watch, but here it's the physical display device.

13 POLONIUMThe radioactive element discovered by Marie Curie, named after her home country Poland.

14 PRINTERThe peripheral famous for jamming at the worst possible moment.

15 SQUASHEDFlattened or crammed in — the most visceral of the four synonyms.

16 TRACKPADThe flat touch-sensitive surface that replaces a mouse on a laptop.

Group hints

Four colour-coded groups, easiest → hardest. Every button reveals the hint, the category name, or a single word — tap only what you need.

See Hint

Hardware that talks to your computer but lives outside it.

See Group

COMPUTER PERIPHERALS

See Word

MICROPHONE

See Word

MONITOR

See Word

PRINTER

See Word

TRACKPAD

See Hint

How a rush-hour subway car feels at 8 a.m.

See Group

TIGHTLY PACKED

See Word

COMPACT

See Word

COMPRESSED

See Word

DENSE

See Word

SQUASHED

See Hint

Elements you really don't want in your drinking water.

See Group

HAZARDOUS ELEMENTAL METALS

See Word

FRANCIUM

See Word

LEAD

See Word

MERCURY

See Word

POLONIUM

See Hint

Say each word aloud and listen to what flies out of the front.

See Group

STARTING WITH BIRD HOMOPHONES

See Word

CRANIUM

See Word

CROQUETTE

See Word

DUCTILE

See Word

HOCKEY

Words the puzzle wants you to mis-group

Read these before you guess — they're the words most likely to break a streak. Tap for the trap.

1 MERCURY Tap to see why this word traps.

You're probably thinking of the planet or the Roman god — but here the puzzle is using it as a chemical element, a toxic metal with its own spot on the periodic table.

2 MONITOR Tap to see why this word traps.

You're probably reading it as a verb meaning to watch or oversee something — but here it's a physical device you plug into a computer.

3 CRANIUM Tap to see why this word traps.

You're probably picturing the skull bone — but the puzzle is not interested in anatomy here at all.

4 HOCKEY Tap to see why this word traps.

You're probably thinking of the sport — but the puzzle is not using this word for anything that happens on ice.

5 DUCTILE Tap to see why this word traps.

You're probably reading it as a materials-science adjective describing how a metal bends — but its meaning is completely irrelevant to why it's in this puzzle.

NYT Connections answers for June 25, 2026

All four groups revealed, easiest first. Each card holds the theme, the four words, and why the group works.

Y COMPUTER PERIPHERALS · Yellow · easiest

MICROPHONE
MONITOR
PRINTER
TRACKPAD

MICROPHONE, MONITOR, PRINTER and TRACKPAD are all computer peripherals — hardware devices that connect to a computer for input or output. MONITOR is the sneakiest here, since it doubles as a verb meaning to watch, pulling solvers toward a different group.

G TIGHTLY PACKED · Green · easy

COMPACT
COMPRESSED
DENSE
SQUASHED

COMPACT, COMPRESSED, DENSE and SQUASHED all mean tightly packed or squeezed together. DENSE is the trickiest — it also describes someone slow-witted, which tempts solvers toward a head-or-brain themed group alongside CRANIUM.

B HAZARDOUS ELEMENTAL METALS · Blue · medium

FRANCIUM
LEAD
MERCURY
POLONIUM

FRANCIUM, LEAD, MERCURY and POLONIUM are all hazardous elemental metals on the periodic table. LEAD is the most well-travelled word in this puzzle — it has appeared in Connections over a dozen times, almost always as a verb meaning to guide, making its metal-element reading easy to miss.

P STARTING WITH BIRD HOMOPHONES · Purple · hardest

CRANIUM
CROQUETTE
DUCTILE
HOCKEY

CRANIUM, CROQUETTE, DUCTILE and HOCKEY each begin with a syllable that sounds like a bird: CRANE (CRANium), CROW (CROquette), DUCK (DUCtile) and HAWK (HOCKey). The mechanic is purely phonetic — the actual meanings of the words are all misdirection.

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