NYT Connections · #1195

NYT Connections Hints & Answers

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.

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Today's Puzzle Words & Clues

Which word from today's puzzle confuses you?

WordMeaningWordMeaning
BOARD A flat, sawn plank — a mid-sized piece of wood, and a word that has appeared in Connections many times in very different roles. BRONZER Reads as a cosmetic product; strip the final R and you have the colour BRONZE.
CHIP Thin, salted, and fried — though it also means a small fragment, which is the bait here. CRACKER The plain, crispy square you pair with cheese — no hidden twist in this group.
DALE A broad, open valley — common in English place names and pastoral poetry. DELL A small, sheltered hollow or wooded valley — think 'the farmer in the dell'.
GORGE A steep, narrow valley carved by a river — not the verb about overeating, which is the trap. HOLLOW A shallow depression in the land — not a cavity in wood, which is what most solvers picture first.
LOG A thick section of a felled trunk — also a verb and a math term, but here it is simply a chunk of wood. NUT A roasted handful at the bar; also a hardware fastener and slang for the head, but here it is just the snack.
PINKY Reads as the little finger; strip the final Y and you have the colour PINK. PRETZEL The twisted, salted baked snack — the most unambiguous member of this group.
REDO Reads as doing something again; strip the final O and you have the colour RED. SPLINTER The tiniest form of wood in this group — the painful sliver that ends up under your skin.
TANG Reads as a sharp flavour or a drink brand; strip the final G and you have the colour TAN. TREE The whole thing before any cutting — the largest unit of wood on the grid.

Tricky words to watch

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

Decoy GORGE

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.

Decoy HOLLOW

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.

Decoy BRONZER

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.

Decoy TANG

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.

Decoy REDO

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.

Group Hints & Reveal Assistant

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

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

What are today's Connections answers?

Full spoilers — all four groups revealed.

Yellow group answers

The Yellow Connections group today is CRUNCHY SNACK ITEM. The yellow group words are 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.

Green group answers

The Green Connections group today is VARIOUS AMOUNTS OF WOOD. The green group words are 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.

Blue group answers

The Blue Connections group today is AREAS OF LOW GROUND. The blue group words are 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.

Purple group answers

The Purple Connections group today is COLORS PLUS A LETTER. The purple group words are 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.