NYT Connections · #1111

NYT Connections Hints & Answers (#1111) — June 26, 2026

By Sneha Rajput·June 26, 2026

“Start with the group that feels most obvious and lock it in early — then treat every remaining word as a potential impostor before you commit.DALE and DELL appeared together in Connections #711 (Apr 26, 2025), where they were part of a valley-related group. BRONZER appeared in Connections #1006 (Jan 29, 2026) as part of a makeup category — today it is doing something very different. GORGE appeared in Connections #1068 (Feb 23, 2026) as a word meaning to eat voraciously, which is exactly the trap the puzzle is setting for you today.”

NYT Connections hints for June 26, 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 BOARDA flat, sawn plank — a mid-sized piece of wood, and a word that has appeared in Connections many times in very different roles.

2 BRONZERReads as a cosmetic product; strip the final R and you have the colour BRONZE.

3 CHIPThin, salted, and fried — though it also means a small fragment, which is the bait here.

4 CRACKERThe plain, crispy square you pair with cheese — no hidden twist in this group.

5 DALEA broad, open valley — common in English place names and pastoral poetry.

6 DELLA small, sheltered hollow or wooded valley — think 'the farmer in the dell'.

7 GORGEA steep, narrow valley carved by a river — not the verb about overeating, which is the trap.

8 HOLLOWA shallow depression in the land — not a cavity in wood, which is what most solvers picture first.

9 LOGA thick section of a felled trunk — also a verb and a math term, but here it is simply a chunk of wood.

10 NUTA roasted handful at the bar; also a hardware fastener and slang for the head, but here it is just the snack.

11 PINKYReads as the little finger; strip the final Y and you have the colour PINK.

12 PRETZELThe twisted, salted baked snack — the most unambiguous member of this group.

13 REDOReads as doing something again; strip the final O and you have the colour RED.

14 SPLINTERThe tiniest form of wood in this group — the painful sliver that ends up under your skin.

15 TANGReads as a sharp flavour or a drink brand; strip the final G and you have the colour TAN.

16 TREEThe whole thing before any cutting — the largest unit of wood on the grid.

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

The kind of thing you reach for during a movie.

See Group

CRUNCHY SNACK ITEM

See Word

CHIP

See Word

CRACKER

See Word

NUT

See Word

PRETZEL

See Hint

What a carpenter or a beaver works with, in different quantities.

See Group

VARIOUS AMOUNTS OF WOOD

See Word

BOARD

See Word

LOG

See Word

SPLINTER

See Word

TREE

See Hint

You would find these on a topographic map, tucked between hills.

See Group

AREAS OF LOW GROUND

See Word

DALE

See Word

DELL

See Word

GORGE

See Word

HOLLOW

See Hint

Each word is secretly a colour wearing a disguise.

See Group

COLORS PLUS A LETTER

See Word

BRONZER

See Word

PINKY

See Word

REDO

See Word

TANG

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 GORGE Tap to see why this word traps.

You're probably reading it as a verb meaning to eat greedily — a perfect fit for a snack-themed group — but here the puzzle is using it as a landform, not a dining habit.

2 HOLLOW Tap to see why this word traps.

You're probably picturing a cavity inside a piece of wood, which pulls it toward the wood-amounts group, but here it names a low-lying dip in the landscape.

3 BRONZER Tap to see why this word traps.

You're almost certainly thinking of the makeup product — that reading is the bait. The puzzle is using it as a colour with something extra tacked on the end.

4 TANG Tap to see why this word traps.

You're probably thinking of a sharp flavour or the powdered drink brand, but here it is a colour with a single letter added to the end.

5 REDO Tap to see why this word traps.

You're reading it as a verb meaning to do something over again — that is the obvious reading — but the puzzle is treating it as a colour with one letter appended.

NYT Connections answers for June 26, 2026

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

Y CRUNCHY SNACK ITEM · Yellow · easiest

CHIP
CRACKER
NUT
PRETZEL

CHIP, CRACKER, NUT and PRETZEL are all crunchy snack items. This is the most straightforward group in the puzzle, but NUT and CHIP both have strong pulls toward other categories, so confirm the other three before locking NUT in.

G VARIOUS AMOUNTS OF WOOD · Green · easy

BOARD
LOG
SPLINTER
TREE

BOARD, LOG, SPLINTER and TREE are all amounts or forms of wood. The group spans the full scale — from a whole tree down to a tiny splinter — which is the elegant thread connecting them.

B AREAS OF LOW GROUND · Blue · medium

DALE
DELL
GORGE
HOLLOW

DALE, DELL, GORGE and HOLLOW are all words for low-lying ground — valleys, hollows and narrow cuts in the landscape. GORGE is the sneakiest because it so strongly reads as a verb about eating.

P COLORS PLUS A LETTER · Purple · hardest

BRONZER
PINKY
REDO
TANG

BRONZER, PINKY, REDO and TANG are each a colour with one letter added to the end: BRONZE+R, PINK+Y, RED+O and TAN+G. The trick is that every resulting word has a completely unrelated everyday meaning that hides the colour inside it.

Try another puzzle

Two more NazoKai hints, ready when you are.

Wordle

Today's hint ladder & answer

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Spelling Bee

Answers, pangram & word list

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