Stuck on today’s Connections grid? You’re not alone. The August 27 puzzle (#1173) mixes electric wordplay with a sneaky Pokémon trap, and it’s tripping up a lot of solvers this morning. If you just want the answers, scroll down to the full breakdown below. If you want a nudge first, start with the hints.
Connections comes from The New York Times and drops a new puzzle every day. You get 16 words and have to sort them into four hidden groups of four. Each group has its own color, and the game gets harder as you move from yellow to purple.
Today’s Connections Hints (No Spoilers)
Before we give away the answers, here are four gentle hints for each category:
- Yellow: Words that describe getting emotional
- Green: Things that carry an electric charge
- Blue: Shades that fall between black and white
- Purple: Take a music genre and stick a letter in front of it
If any of those click for you, go give the puzzle another shot before reading further.
NYT Connections Answers: August 27, 2026
Here’s the full solution for today’s puzzle, broken down by category.
Yellow: Moved to Tears
- CHOKED UP
- EMOTIONAL
- MISTY
- OVERCOME
This one is pretty direct once you see the theme. All four words describe someone getting emotional or tearing up.
Green: Electric Things
- LIGHTNING
- LIVE WIRE
- ELECTRIC EEL
- PIKACHU
This group leans on things that carry a charge, literally or figuratively. A live wire can mean an actual electrified wire, but it’s also slang for a high-energy person. Pikachu rounds out the group as the electric-type Pokémon mascot.
Blue: Shades of Gray
- SLATE
- ASH
- PEWTER
- DOVE
Each of these is a specific shade that sits between black and white. Slate and pewter both lean toward a darker, metallic gray, while dove is a softer, lighter tone.
Purple: Music Genre Plus a Letter
- SPUNK (S + PUNK)
- BROCK (B + ROCK)
- WRAP (W + RAP)
- NEMO (N + EMO)
This is the trickiest category of the day. Each word is built by adding a single letter to the front of a music genre. Punk becomes spunk, rock becomes Brock, rap becomes wrap, and emo becomes Nemo.
Why Today’s Puzzle Is Tricky
The real challenge in today’s grid is the Pokémon red herring.
ASH, MISTY, BROCK, and PEWTER are all connected to the Pokémon anime. Ash Ketchum is the main character, Misty and Brock are his traveling companions, and Pewter City is an early stop in the games and show.
It’s easy to assume those four belong together. But the puzzle splits them up on purpose. Ash and Pewter land in the gray shades category, Misty ends up in the emotional group, and Brock is secretly a music genre puzzle piece. That kind of misdirection is exactly what makes the purple category so hard to spot on a first pass.
How NYT Connections Works
Connections launched from The New York Times in 2023 and quickly became a daily habit for word game fans, similar to Wordle. You’re given 16 tiles and need to group them into four sets of four based on a hidden connection.
A few quick rules to keep in mind:
- You get four wrong guesses before the game ends
- Categories are ranked by difficulty: yellow (easiest), green, blue, purple (hardest)
- The same word can sometimes fit more than one category, which is where most of the trickery comes from
Subscribers with NYT Games access can also dig into the full archive of past puzzles if you want more practice.
Final Thoughts
Today’s Connections puzzle rewards players who resist the obvious Pokémon grouping and instead look for the actual hidden themes. Once you spot the music genre wordplay in the purple category, the rest falls into place fast.
Come back tomorrow for the next set of hints and answers, and check out GamerUrge for more daily gaming news, guides, and puzzle solutions.
