NYT Connections · #1183

NYT Connections Hints & Answers

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.

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Today's Puzzle Words & Clues

Which word from today's puzzle confuses you?

WordMeaningWordMeaning
COMPACT Tightly arranged with no wasted space — nothing to do with makeup or cars here. COMPRESSED Squeezed down into a smaller form — the puzzle wants the physical sense, not the file-size one.
CRANIUM Starts with CRANE — CRANium sounds like CRANE+ium; the skull meaning is pure misdirection. CROQUETTE Starts with CROW — CROquette sounds like CROW+quette; the fried food is the bait.
DENSE Packed closely together — not the insult meaning slow, and not a property of lead specifically. DUCTILE Starts with DUCK — DUCtile sounds like DUCK+tile; the metallurgy definition is irrelevant here.
FRANCIUM A highly radioactive alkali metal — the least familiar of the four, which makes it the safest pick here. HOCKEY Starts with HAWK — HOCKey sounds like HAWK+ey; the sport is the obvious misdirection.
LEAD The 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. MERCURY The only metal that is liquid at room temperature (Hg) — also a planet and a god, which is the bait.
MICROPHONE An input device that captures your voice for the computer. MONITOR The screen you stare at all day — looks like a verb meaning to watch, but here it's the physical display device.
POLONIUM The radioactive element discovered by Marie Curie, named after her home country Poland. PRINTER The peripheral famous for jamming at the worst possible moment.
SQUASHED Flattened or crammed in — the most visceral of the four synonyms. TRACKPAD The flat touch-sensitive surface that replaces a mouse on a laptop.

Tricky words to watch

Decoys the NYT plants to throw you off. Tap one to see why it bites.

Decoy MERCURY

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.

Decoy MONITOR

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.

Decoy CRANIUM

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

Decoy HOCKEY

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

Decoy DUCTILE

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.

Group Hints & Reveal Assistant

Reveal exactly what you need — a hint, the group name, or a single word.

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

What are today's Connections answers?

Full spoilers — all four groups revealed.

Yellow group answers

The Yellow Connections group today is COMPUTER PERIPHERALS. The yellow group words are 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.

Green group answers

The Green Connections group today is TIGHTLY PACKED. The green group words are 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.

Blue group answers

The Blue Connections group today is HAZARDOUS ELEMENTAL METALS. The blue group words are 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.

Purple group answers

The Purple Connections group today is STARTING WITH BIRD HOMOPHONES. The purple group words are 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.