NYT Connections · #1193
NYT Connections Hints & Answers
Start with the group that feels most physical and concrete — once those four are locked in, the remaining words will sort themselves more cleanly.
Today's Puzzle Words & Clues
Which word from today's puzzle confuses you?
| Word | Meaning | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| BOTTLE | Glass or plastic — either way, it goes in the recycling, not the bin. | BOX | Cardboard after the delivery arrives — flatten it first. |
| BREEZE | A draft of air — the light, cool kind that slips under a door. | CAN | The aluminium kind — not the modal verb, not the toilet, just the tin you rinse out. |
| CURL | Not a bicep exercise or a hairstyle — the sport where teams slide stones toward a target on ice. | FENCE | A classic boundary marker — and a tempting fake-out for anyone thinking of ski courses. |
| GATE | An opening in a fence or wall — not the slalom poles skiers weave through. | HEDGE | A living wall of shrubs — not the financial manoeuvre, just the garden boundary. |
| LUGE | The Winter Olympics event where athletes race downhill lying flat on a small sled. | NEWSPAPER | The most old-fashioned recyclable here — paper, not digital. |
| ON TAP | Draft beer is beer on tap — the phrase and the adjective mean the same thing. | RECRUIT | To draft someone is to recruit them — especially into military service. |
| SKATE | To glide on ice — the verb behind figure skating and speed skating alike. | SKETCH | A first draft is a rough sketch — the earliest, unpolished version of something. |
| SKI | The most obvious Winter Olympics verb — sliding downhill on two long boards. | WALL | The most solid divider of the four — no ambiguity here. |
Tricky words to watch
Decoys the NYT plants to throw you off. Tap one to see why it bites.
Decoy GATE
You're probably picturing a slalom course, where gates are the poles skiers weave through — but the puzzle is using it as a physical structure, not a sporting term.
Decoy BREEZE
You're probably reading it as simple weather — a light wind — but the puzzle is using it as a synonym for a different kind of air movement, one tied to a single connecting word.
Decoy CURL
You're probably thinking of hair styling or a gym exercise, but the puzzle is using it as a sport you do on ice.
Decoy ON TAP
You're probably picturing a pub keg — that's the bait — but the puzzle is using it in a sense that has nothing to do with how the drink is served.
Decoy HEDGE
You're probably thinking of hedging your bets or a financial fund — but here it's being used in its most literal, physical sense.
Group Hints & Reveal Assistant
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What are today's Connections answers?
Full spoilers — all four groups revealed.
Yellow group answers
The Yellow Connections group today is DIVIDING STRUCTURES. The yellow group words are FENCE, GATE, HEDGE, WALL. FENCE, GATE, HEDGE and WALL are all structures used to divide or enclose space. GATE is the sneakiest — most solvers associate it with ski slalom courses before the boundary-structure meaning clicks.
Green group answers
The Green Connections group today is PARTICIPATE IN SOME WINTER OLYMPICS. The green group words are CURL, LUGE, SKATE, SKI. CURL, LUGE, SKATE and SKI are all things you do as Winter Olympic sports. CURL is the trickiest — most solvers think of hair or gym exercises before landing on the ice sport involving brooms and stones.
Blue group answers
The Blue Connections group today is COMMON RECYCLABLES. The blue group words are BOTTLE, BOX, CAN, NEWSPAPER. BOTTLE, BOX, CAN and NEWSPAPER are all items commonly placed in recycling. CAN is the most versatile word on the grid — it has appeared in Connections as slang, a modal verb, and a food preservation method — but today it's simply the aluminium kind.
Purple group answers
The Purple Connections group today is WHAT "DRAFT" MIGHT REFER TO. The purple group words are BREEZE, ON TAP, RECRUIT, SKETCH. BREEZE, ON TAP, RECRUIT and SKETCH are all things the word DRAFT can mean. BREEZE is the hardest leap — a draft of air is a light, cool breeze — while ON TAP captures draft beer, RECRUIT captures the military draft, and SKETCH captures a first draft of a drawing.