Game #1096 served up a neat mix today: a straightforward fitness quartet, a horns-themed set that makes you think visually, and two trickier clusters that reward lateral thinking. If you enjoy a little wordplay and a couple of “aha” turns, this board delivered.
On paper the easiest group is obvious — but the two hardest groups asked solvers to step outside literal meanings and listen (or subtract) their way to the answers. Read on for a quick walk-through of Game #1096.
SPOILER WARNING: Full solutions and discussion follow. If you want to solve without help, stop here.
Today’s NYT Connections words
Here are the 16 words that appeared on the board today.
- DEVIL | STRIP | PAPAL | BRONCHO
- VENO | BRASS BAND | UCONN | RHINO
- CARDIO | TROUPER | VIKING HELMET | BALANCE
- ELLE | WEIGHTS | FORERUNNER | STRETCHING
Today’s NYT Connections hints
Four one-line hints to nudge you without giving the groups away.
- 🟡 Yellow: Four standard elements you’d slot into a fitness routine.
- 🟢 Green: Think horns — literal or ceremonial — and what carries them.
- 🔵 Blue: These ordinary words sound like model names you might see on a car lot.
- 🟣 Purple: Remove a letter from each and they become names you might use to send money.
Today’s NYT Connections group titles
The exact four group titles solved for Game #1096.
- 🟡 Yellow: PARTS OF A WORKOUT ROUTINE
- 🟢 Green: THINGS WITH HORNS
- 🔵 Blue: HOMOPHONES OF SUVS
- 🟣 Purple: PAYMENT APPS MINUS A LETTER
What are today’s NYT Connections answers?
The four groups and their members for Game #1096.
- 🟡 Yellow (PARTS OF A WORKOUT ROUTINE): BALANCE, CARDIO, STRETCHING, WEIGHTS
- 🟢 Green (THINGS WITH HORNS): BRASS BAND, DEVIL, RHINO, VIKING HELMET
- 🔵 Blue (HOMOPHONES OF SUVS): BRONCHO, FORERUNNER, TROUPER, UCONN
- 🟣 Purple (PAYMENT APPS MINUS A LETTER): ELLE, PAPAL, STRIP, VENO
Today’s Connections — expert analysis
The natural entry point was the yellow set: BALANCE, CARDIO, STRETCHING and WEIGHTS are immediately thematic and sit together like a 30-second workout demo. That quartet is the clearest cluster on the board, which is why it’s listed as the easiest group.
The hardest group was purple. ELLE, PAPAL, STRIP and VENO look like ordinary words and their link only appears if you think about removing a letter to reveal payment-app names — that’s a different kind of leap than spotting shared literal features. Blue was the other trick: BRONCHO, FORERUNNER, TROUPER and UCONN are homophones of SUV model names, and spellings like BRONCHO or TROUPER act as decoys because they read as independent words. Green fell into place once you focused on horns, but watch out for red herrings: BRASS BAND can read as a musical phrase rather than a horn-y clue, and DEVIL or RHINO could lure you toward animal, mascot, or costume-themed interpretations. Overall difficulty: starts easy, finishes clever — a medium-to-challenging board if you miss the homophone and single-letter tricks.
Yesterday’s NYT Connections answers (Game #1095)
For reference, here are yesterday’s solved groups from Game #1095.
- 🟡 Yellow (TECHNIQUE): FASHION, MANNER, METHOD, WAY
- 🟢 Green (GROSS THINGS THAT FORM ON WET SURFACES): CRUST, FILM, SCUM, SKIN
- 🔵 Blue (PARTS OF A THEATER): CATWALK, PIT, STAGE, WINGS
- 🟣 Purple (COUNTED IN DOCUMENT WORD COUNTS): CHARACTER, LINE, PAGE, WORD
What is NYT Connections?
NYT Connections is a daily word-association puzzle that gives you 16 words and asks you to group them into four related sets of four. Each set shares a common link, but the links can be literal, phonetic, playful or cryptic.
How to play NYT Connections
- Scan the board for obvious quartets (literal categories like parts of a workout are common starting points).
- Watch for non-literal links: homophones, removed letters, prefixes/suffixes and wordplay.
- Use process of elimination — removing a confirmed group narrows possibilities and exposes subtler connections.
More daily puzzle help from HashTechWave
- Today’s NYT Strands hints, spangram and answers
- Today’s NYT Spelling Bee answers and pangram
- Today’s Wordle hints, clues and answer
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What time does a new NYT Connections puzzle unlock?
A brand-new puzzle drops every single night at midnight local time across your specific region’s time zone on NYT Connection official site.
Why do some words seem to fit into two different groups?
The puzzle is specifically designed to include “decoys” or overlapping vocabulary. Always look for a backup configuration of words before locking in an early guess to protect your attempt counter.
Can I review answers to older puzzles?
Yes! If you are tracking performance over time or reviewing a grid you missed over the weekend, you can check out our dedicated NYT Connections Past Archive to look over historical solutions.
