NYT Connections · #1180

NYT Connections Hints & Answers (#1180) — September 3, 2026

By Sneha Rajput·September 3, 2026

“When a word feels too generic to belong anywhere specific, that is your signal — treat it as a technical term and see if four of them snap together.FLASH and BLINK both carry history here. FLASH has appeared in brief-moment categories in Connections #302 (Apr 8, 2024) and Connections #141 (Oct 30, 2023), and BLINK appeared among involuntary actions in Connections #1059 (May 5, 2026) and eyelid-related words in Connections #508 (Oct 31, 2024). Both are being used in their time-idiom sense today.”

NYT Connections hints for September 3, 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 AVERAGEFeels like a general word for typical — here it's =AVERAGE(), the function that calculates a mean across a range.

2 BLINKAs in 'in the blink of an eye' — the puzzle wants the duration, not the eye action.

3 CARMINEA deep, slightly purplish red derived historically from crushed cochineal insects.

4 CINNABARA vivid orange-red named after the mercury sulfide mineral of the same colour.

5 COUNTFeels like a verb or a vampire — here it's =COUNT(), the function that tallies how many cells hold numbers.

6 FLASHAs in 'in a flash' — the light meaning is the bait; the time meaning is what counts here.

7 HEARTBEATOne pulse of the heart — used as a measure of how fast something can happen.

8 HOT WHEELSMattel's die-cast miniature car line, launched in 1968 and still going strong.

9 MAROONLooks like a verb meaning to strand someone — here it's just a dark brownish-red.

10 MATCHBOXThe British die-cast brand named for the tiny boxes its cars originally came in.

11 MAXFeels like a name or abbreviation — here it's =MAX(), the function that returns the largest value in a range.

12 MICRO MACHINESThe ultra-tiny vehicle line from the 1980s, famous for its rapid-fire TV ads.

13 SUMFeels like basic arithmetic — here it's =SUM(), the most-used spreadsheet function of them all.

14 TONKAKnown for big, chunky toy trucks rather than miniature replicas — but still a toy vehicle brand.

15 TRICEAn old word for a very short time, kept alive almost entirely by the phrase 'in a trice.'

16 VERMILLIONA bright, warm red — the shade traditionally used in Chinese lacquerware and old oil paints.

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

Each one names the gap between now and done.

See Group

TWO SHAKES OF A LAMB'S TAIL

See Word

BLINK

See Word

FLASH

See Word

HEARTBEAT

See Word

TRICE

See Hint

Sunburned and embarrassed share a look — so do these four.

See Group

SHADES OF RED

See Word

CARMINE

See Word

CINNABAR

See Word

MAROON

See Word

VERMILLION

See Hint

Small wheels, big nostalgia — these names lived on bedroom floors.

See Group

TOY CAR BRANDS

See Word

HOT WHEELS

See Word

MATCHBOX

See Word

MICRO MACHINES

See Word

TONKA

See Hint

These live in the formula bar, not the dictionary.

See Group

SPREADSHEET FUNCTIONS

See Word

AVERAGE

See Word

COUNT

See Word

MAX

See Word

SUM

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 FLASH Tap to see why this word traps.

You're probably picturing a camera flash or a burst of light — but here the puzzle is using it as a time idiom, the way you'd say something happened 'in a flash.'

2 BLINK Tap to see why this word traps.

You're likely reading it as the eye action or a blinking light, but the puzzle wants the duration sense — the tiny window of time it takes to do it.

3 AVERAGE Tap to see why this word traps.

You're probably treating it as a general word meaning typical or so-so, but here it's a precise named command you type into a cell.

4 COUNT Tap to see why this word traps.

You're probably thinking of the verb meaning to enumerate, or maybe a vampire — but the puzzle is using it as a specific formula name, not a general action.

5 MAROON Tap to see why this word traps.

You're probably thinking of stranding someone on a desert island, or the band — but here it's simply a colour sitting with three other reds.

NYT Connections answers for September 3, 2026

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

Y TWO SHAKES OF A LAMB'S TAIL · Yellow · easiest

BLINK
FLASH
HEARTBEAT
TRICE

BLINK, FLASH, HEARTBEAT and TRICE are all idioms for an extremely short period of time — the kind you'd use in the phrase 'I'll be back in a ___.' TRICE is the most obscure of the four; it's an old nautical word meaning a very brief moment that survives almost exclusively in this idiom.

G SHADES OF RED · Green · easy

CARMINE
CINNABAR
MAROON
VERMILLION

CARMINE, CINNABAR, MAROON and VERMILLION are all shades of red. CINNABAR is the most obscure — it's a vivid orange-red named after the mercury sulfide mineral, and most solvers won't have it on the tip of their tongue.

B TOY CAR BRANDS · Blue · medium

HOT WHEELS
MATCHBOX
MICRO MACHINES
TONKA

HOT WHEELS, MATCHBOX, MICRO MACHINES and TONKA are all toy car brands. TONKA is the one most likely to cause a pause — its trucks are large and chunky rather than miniature replicas, but it is firmly a toy vehicle brand alongside the others.

P SPREADSHEET FUNCTIONS · Purple · hardest

AVERAGE
COUNT
MAX
SUM

AVERAGE, COUNT, MAX and SUM are all built-in spreadsheet functions — the kind you type after an equals sign in Excel or Google Sheets. The trap is that all four read as ordinary English words, making it easy to scatter them across other categories instead of seeing them as a tight technical set.

Try another puzzle

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Answers, pangram & word list

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