Today’s NYT Connections puzzle has a little bit of everything. There are round objects, foods hiding inside other food names, different types of eels, and a tricky wordplay category that can easily throw you off.
If you’re working on Connections #1181 and can’t quite crack the grid, we’ve got the hints and answers for September 4, 2026 below.
Connections is The New York Times’ daily word-grouping game. You’re given 16 words and have to split them into four groups of four, with each group sharing something in common. Sounds simple, right? The catch is that several words can look like they belong together, which makes choosing the right combination much harder than it seems.
What Is NYT Connections?
Connections is a daily puzzle from The New York Times Games section. Your goal is to arrange 16 words into four groups of four based on a common connection.
Each category has its own difficulty level:
- Yellow: The easiest category
- Green: Medium difficulty
- Blue: More challenging
- Purple: The hardest, usually involving wordplay or a less obvious connection
You can make only four incorrect guesses before the puzzle ends, so it’s usually best to secure the group you’re most confident about first.
Today’s Connections Hints for September 4, 2026
Want a little help without seeing the answers? Start with these hints and see if they point you in the right direction.
- Yellow hint: Think of things that are round or shaped like a ball.
- Green hint: Each answer combines the names of two different foods.
- Blue hint: These are all names for different types of long, snake-like fish.
- Purple hint: Pay close attention to the first and last letters of each word. There’s something hidden in them.
NYT Connections Answers Today, September 4, 2026
Ready for the solution? Here are all four categories and the words that belong to each one.
Yellow: Spherical Things
These are things that are round or roughly ball-shaped:
- Bowling Ball
- Eye
- Moon
- Orange
The orange is the sneaky one here. It’s easy to focus on it as a fruit, but its shape is what matters for this group.
Green: Food Whose Name Is Two Foods
This category relies on a bit of wordplay. Each answer is a food name that contains another food name within it:
- Cake Donut
- Candy Corn
- Cherry Tomato
- Pizza Pie
Once you spot the pattern, the group comes together pretty quickly.
Blue: Kinds of Eels
This is the most straightforward category of the four. Each word refers to a type of eel:
- Conger
- Gulper
- Moray
- Ribbon
“Ribbon” can be especially misleading because you might associate the word with accessories, but ribbon eels are indeed a type of eel.
Purple: Accessories Inside Starting and Ending Letters
And then there’s the purple group.
This category asks you to look at the beginning and ending letters of each word to uncover the name of an accessory:
- Cringy
- Opine
- Stied
- That’s
This is the sort of category that can leave you staring at the grid for a while before the connection finally clicks.
Quick Answer Recap
- Yellow: Spherical Things – BOWLING BALL, EYE, MOON, ORANGE
- Green: Food Whose Name Is Two Foods – CAKE DONUT, CANDY CORN, CHERRY TOMATO, PIZZA PIE
- Blue: Kinds of Eels – CONGER, GULPER, MORAY, RIBBON
- Purple: Accessories Inside Starting and Ending Letters – CRINGY, OPINE, STIED, THAT’S
Why Today’s Puzzle Is So Tricky
As usual with Connections, the real challenge isn’t simply knowing the words. It’s figuring out which connection the puzzle setter actually wants you to see.
“Orange,” for example, immediately looks like it could belong in a fruit-related group. Instead, its shape puts it alongside the moon, eye, and bowling ball.
“Ribbon” is another good example of the game’s misdirection. You might naturally associate it with accessories, but in today’s puzzle, it belongs with the eel group because ribbon eels are a real type of eel.
Those deliberate overlaps are what make Connections frustrating at first but satisfying once you finally find the intended groups.
Tips for Solving NYT Connections Faster
Want to get better at Connections? A few habits can make a big difference:
- Start with the group you know for sure. Securing one category gives you fewer words to work with.
- Be suspicious of obvious overlaps. If a word fits two groups, there’s a good chance it’s being used as a trap.
- Leave purple until later. The purple category is often based on wordplay, hidden meanings, spelling tricks, or unusual connections.
- Look at every word carefully. Strange-looking entries such as “That’s” and “Stied” may seem useless at first, but their spelling can be the key to solving the puzzle.
Final Thoughts
Today’s Connections puzzle is a good reminder not to settle for the first connection you spot. The yellow and blue groups become fairly manageable once you see the intended pattern, while the green and especially purple categories require a closer look.
The purple group is a perfect example of why the puzzle can be so addictive. Just when you think you’ve figured out all the possible connections, there’s usually another trick hiding in plain sight.
Come back tomorrow for the next NYT Connections hints and answers, and follow GamerUrge for daily puzzle solutions, gaming news, guides, and more.
