NYT Connections Hints, Clues, and Answers for September 21, 2026

NYT Connections Puzzle #1197: Hints, Categories, and Complete Solution

How Connections Works

The New York Times’ latest daily word game has become a social media hit since its launch. The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications’ Games section. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and requires players to group four words that share something in common. Each puzzle features 16 words split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, and more. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there’s only one correct answer. If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends. Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.

Today’s Category Hints

For solvers seeking a gentle nudge without full spoilers, the category hints for puzzle #1197 were:

• Yellow: “You’ve got mail!”
• Green: “Reel it in”
• Blue: “Board game”
• Purple: “Musical icons”

These clues correspond to the four difficulty tiers, with yellow representing the most accessible grouping and purple the most challenging.

Revealed Categories and Solutions

The confirmed categories for Connections #1197 are:

• Yellow (Email buttons): COMPOSE, DRAFTS, SENT, SPAM
• Green (Ways to attract fish): CHUM, FLY, SPINNER, WORM
• Blue (Chess verbs): CAPTURE, CASTLE, CHECK, MATE
• Purple (Starts of composers’ names): BEET, BRAH, CHOP, VIVA

The purple category requires recognizing truncated surnames: BEET for Beethoven, BRAH for Brahms, CHOP for Chopin, and VIVA for Vivaldi—representing the highest difficulty tier as indicated by the color-coding system.

Why This Matters

Connections continues to grow as a flagship title in the New York Times Games portfolio alongside Wordle, Spelling Bee, and the Crossword. The game’s design—combining lateral thinking, cultural knowledge, and pattern recognition—has fostered a daily habit for millions of players. The color-coded difficulty scaling (yellow through purple) provides a structured progression that keeps both casual and dedicated solvers engaged. Puzzle #1197 exemplifies the game’s range, spanning digital interface terminology (email buttons), outdoor recreation vocabulary (fishing lures), specialized game notation (chess verbs), and classical music literacy (composer name fragments). This diversity ensures that different knowledge domains are tested across a single session, contributing to the game’s broad appeal and social media shareability. As the NYT Games section expands—with recent additions like Strands—the ecosystem reinforces subscriber retention and digital engagement metrics critical to the Times’ business model.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many mistakes are allowed in NYT Connections?

Players get up to four mistakes per puzzle before the game ends. Each incorrect guess of a four-word group counts as one mistake.

Who created the NYT Connections game?

The New York Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the word game and bringing it to the publications’ Games section.

When does the Connections puzzle reset?

Connections resets after midnight each day, delivering a new set of 16 words and four categories for players to solve.