Need help with today’s Connections puzzle? You’ve landed in the right spot.
The answer to today’s NYT Connections puzzle (#1,166, August 20) involves four groups: pizza types, kinds of numbers, typographical marks, and words hiding Chinese zodiac animals. If you want the full breakdown before your guesses run out, keep scrolling.
Connections trips people up almost every day, and today’s grid is no exception. One word in particular is built to trick you into an early wrong guess. Here’s everything you need to solve it without losing your streak.
What Is NYT Connections?
Connections is a daily puzzle from The New York Times. You get 16 words and have to sort them into four groups of four based on a hidden theme.
Each group has a difficulty color:
- Yellow: easiest
- Green: fairly easy
- Blue: tricky
- Purple: hardest, usually wordplay
You get four mistakes before the game locks you out. That’s why a hint or two can be the difference between keeping your streak alive and starting over tomorrow.
Today’s Connections Word List (August 20)
Here are the 16 words in today’s puzzle:
TELEPHONE, APOSTROPHE, OXFORD, SERIAL, HAWAIIAN, OKINA, RATCHET, COMMA, WHITE, PIGMENT, ATOMIC, DRAGONFLY, DIAVOLA, CEDILLA, MEAT LOVERS, SOCIAL SECURITY
At first glance, these words don’t seem to connect at all. That’s the point. NYT Connections always hides at least one red herring designed to send you down the wrong path.
NYT Connections Hints for August 20
If you’re not ready for the full answer yet, try these hints first.
Yellow Group Hint
Think about what’s on top of your dinner tonight.
Green Group Hint
These aren’t words. They’re figures.
Blue Group Hint
Small marks that change how a word looks or sounds.
Purple Group Hint
Look closely at the start of each word. An animal is hiding there.
One Word From Each Group
Still stuck? Here’s a single confirmed word from every category.
- Yellow: WHITE
- Green: SERIAL
- Blue: CEDILLA
- Purple: RATCHET
Today’s Connections Categories
Here are the four themes for August 20’s puzzle:
- Yellow: Kinds of pizza
- Green: Kinds of numbers
- Blue: Similarly shaped typographical marks
- Purple: Start with Chinese zodiac animals
NYT Connections Answers August 20, #1,166
Here’s the full solution for today’s puzzle.
Yellow: Kinds of pizza
DIAVOLA, HAWAIIAN, MEAT LOVERS, WHITE
Green: Kinds of numbers
ATOMIC, SERIAL, SOCIAL SECURITY, TELEPHONE
Blue: Similarly shaped typographical marks
APOSTROPHE, CEDILLA, COMMA, OKINA
Purple: Start with Chinese zodiac animals
DRAGONFLY, OXFORD, PIGMENT, RATCHET
Why Today’s Puzzle Is Trickier Than It Looks
The purple group is the real standout today. Each word simply starts with a zodiac animal: dragon in DRAGONFLY, ox in OXFORD, pig in PIGMENT, and rat in RATCHET. Once you see the pattern, it’s obvious. Before that, it looks like nonsense.
OXFORD is the word most likely to trip you up. Since OXFORD comma is such a common phrase, it’s tempting to pair it with COMMA in the typographical marks group. That’s the trap. OXFORD actually belongs with the zodiac animals, not the punctuation group.
The blue category groups marks that share a similar curved shape, even though they come from completely different writing systems and serve different jobs in language. The apostrophe and comma are familiar to English speakers, while the okina (used in Hawaiian) and cedilla (used in French and Portuguese) are less common outside their respective languages.
SOCIAL SECURITY is your best clue for the green group. Once you connect it to types of numbers, ATOMIC, SERIAL, and TELEPHONE fall into place quickly.
That leaves the pizza styles as your yellow group. DIAVOLA, HAWAIIAN, MEAT LOVERS, and WHITE round out the easiest category of the day.
Quick Tips for Solving Connections Faster
- Lock in the group you’re most confident about first, even if it’s not yellow.
- If a word seems to fit two categories, like OXFORD did today, hold off before guessing.
- Watch for red herrings built around common phrases or idioms.
- Save the trickiest purple group for last, since it usually clicks once the other three are solved.
Yesterday’s NYT Connections Answers (August 19, #1,165)
Catching up after missing a day? Here’s yesterday’s full solution too.
- Piece of cake: BREEZE, CINCH, PICNIC, SNAP
- Conceal: BLANKET, HIDE, MASK, OBSCURE
- Words before “ball” in sport names: BASE, BASKET, FOOT, PICKLE
- Homophones of CGI-animated films: ANTS, COCOA, RHEO, SEOUL
Final Thoughts
Today’s NYT Connections puzzle rewards players who look past the obvious phrase associations, like OXFORD comma, and instead search for hidden patterns inside the words themselves. Once you spot the zodiac animals tucked into DRAGONFLY, OXFORD, PIGMENT, and RATCHET, the rest of the grid falls into place fast.
Come back tomorrow for another set of NYT Connections hints and answers, and follow GamerUrge for daily gaming news, guides, and puzzle solutions to keep every streak alive.
