NYT Connections · #1182

NYT Connections Hints & Answers (#1182) — September 5, 2026

By Sneha Rajput·September 5, 2026

“Before you lock in any group, say each word out loud and ask whether it could be hiding a longer word with one letter added back on the end.COO and GOBBLE both carry history. COO appeared in Connections #489 (Oct 12, 2024) as a bird sound, and also in Connections #309 (Apr 15, 2024) among things babies do. GOBBLE has appeared several times before — as a way of eating fast in Connections #624 (Feb 24, 2025), and as a bird sound in Connections #489 (Oct 12, 2024).”

NYT Connections hints for September 5, 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 BOBBLERhymes with WOBBLE and feels like unsteady movement — but it's here because BOBBLEHEAD is a thing you put on a dashboard.

2 COBBLELooks like paving stones or a hasty fix — it's actually COBBLER (the fruit dessert) with the R dropped.

3 COOThe soft, low call of a pigeon or dove — also what a baby does, which is the red herring.

4 GOBBLEThe unmistakable call of a turkey — easy to miss because 'gobble' more often means eating fast.

5 HAMMERA tool, an ear bone, a Donkey Kong power-up — but today it's the front half of a flat-nosed shark's name.

6 HONKThe loud, nasal call of a goose — also what a car horn does, which is the distraction.

7 JUGPreviously appeared in Connections as a blown instrument — today it's completing a compound word, not making music.

8 PIScreams Greek letter or mathematical constant — but remove the E from PIE and this is what you're left with.

9 SLEEPYReads as a plain adjective meaning drowsy — but add HEAD and you get the affectionate term for someone who can't wake up.

10 SWAYMeans to rock side to side unsteadily — though it moonlights as a word for influencing someone's opinion.

11 TARBlack, sticky road material in everyday life — here it's TART (the pastry) with its final T quietly removed.

12 TODDLEThe classic walk of a very young child who hasn't quite found their balance yet.

13 TORTA civil wrong in law — but the puzzle is reading it as TORTE, the rich layered cake, minus its last letter E.

14 TOTTERTo teeter on the edge of falling — think of someone on a very high pair of heels.

15 WARBLEA songbird's trilling, melodic call — the wavering sound of it might make you think of wobbling, but that's the bait.

16 WOBBLEThe most familiar of the four; also the one most likely to tempt you toward the -OBBLE rhyme trap.

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

A toddler taking their first steps looks like this.

See Group

MOVE UNSTEADILY

See Word

SWAY

See Word

TODDLE

See Word

TOTTER

See Word

WOBBLE

See Hint

Close your eyes and listen to the farmyard and the pond.

See Group

BIRD ONOMATOPOEIA

See Word

COO

See Word

GOBBLE

See Word

HONK

See Word

WARBLE

See Hint

A dashboard collectible, a flat-nosed shark, and a sleepy nickname all end the same way.

See Group

___HEAD

See Word

BOBBLE

See Word

HAMMER

See Word

JUG

See Word

SLEEPY

See Hint

Each word is a pastry case with its last letter left on the counter.

See Group

DESSERTS MINUS LAST LETTER

See Word

COBBLE

See Word

TAR

See Word

TORT

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 COBBLE Tap to see why this word traps.

You're probably thinking of paving stones or the phrase 'cobble together' — but the puzzle is not using it in any construction or DIY sense.

2 TORT Tap to see why this word traps.

You're almost certainly reading this as the legal term for a civil wrong — but the puzzle is not interested in law here at all.

3 TAR Tap to see why this word traps.

You're probably picturing the black sticky road material — but that reading will send you in completely the wrong direction.

4 BOBBLE Tap to see why this word traps.

It rhymes with WOBBLE and feels like something unsteady — but the puzzle is not using it to describe shaky movement.

5 WARBLE Tap to see why this word traps.

The sound of it feels like wavering or wobbling — but that instinct is the bait, and the wobbling group is not where this one lives.

NYT Connections answers for September 5, 2026

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

Y MOVE UNSTEADILY · Yellow · easiest

SWAY
TODDLE
TOTTER
WOBBLE

SWAY, TODDLE, TOTTER and WOBBLE all mean to move in an unsteady, off-balance way. SWAY is the sneakiest of the four — it also means to influence someone, which could pull it toward a completely different group.

G BIRD ONOMATOPOEIA · Green · easy

COO
GOBBLE
HONK
WARBLE

COO, GOBBLE, HONK and WARBLE are all sounds associated with birds — each one is an onomatopoeia for a specific bird's call. COO and GOBBLE both appeared in Connections #489 (Oct 12, 2024) in a bird-sounds category, which shows the NYT returns to this well — WARBLE is the fresh addition that makes today's version harder to spot.

B ___HEAD · Blue · medium

BOBBLE
HAMMER
JUG
SLEEPY

BOBBLE, HAMMER, JUG and SLEEPY all precede HEAD to form a compound word: BOBBLEHEAD, HAMMERHEAD, JUGHEAD and SLEEPYHEAD. SLEEPY is the most disorienting — standing alone it reads as a simple adjective, and most solvers don't immediately reach for SLEEPYHEAD.

P DESSERTS MINUS LAST LETTER · Purple · hardest

COBBLE
PI
TAR
TORT

COBBLE, PI, TAR and TORT are all dessert names with their final letter removed: COBBLER, PIE, TART and TORTE. TORT is the cruelest trap — it looks exactly like a legal term, and nothing about it signals 'layered Austrian cake missing an E'.

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