Game #1172, August 26 — today’s NYT Connections leaned on a mix of musical red herrings and a quartet of exclamatory entries that made the board feel like a shorthand crossword. Expect overlaps around musical terms and words that double as short phrases.
If you tripped on today’s puzzle, you weren’t alone — the groups are satisfying once spotted, but a few well-placed decoys keep the solve interesting.
SPOILER WARNING: Below are full spoilers for NYT Connections Game #1172 (2026-08-26). If you want to solve unaided, stop now.
Today’s NYT Connections words
Here are the 16 words on the board, in the order they appeared.
- PARK | LIME | PIANO | FORTE
- LARGO | PRESTO | SIGNATURE | PAGE
- GIFT | PHOSPHORUS | BEHOLD | CHAIN
- VOILÀ | TALENT | SHAZAM | STRENGTH
Today’s NYT Connections hints
Four spoiler-light one-line hints to nudge you without giving everything away.
- 🟡 Yellow: Short, punchy words you might shout when something is revealed or completed.
- 🟢 Green: Four words that all mean an ability or strength of a person.
- 🔵 Blue: Think about what the letter “P” commonly abbreviates on signs, labels and in science.
- 🟣 Purple: Each word completes the phrase “Key ___” to make a familiar compound or proper name.
Today’s NYT Connections group titles
The exact group titles for Game #1172.
- 🟡 Yellow: “THERE YOU HAVE IT!”
- 🟢 Green: “KNACK”
- 🔵 Blue: “WHAT “P” MIGHT STAND FOR”
- 🟣 Purple: “KEY ___”
What are today’s NYT Connections answers?
Here are the four winning groups and their members.
| Colour | Group | Words |
|---|---|---|
| 🟡 Yellow | “THERE YOU HAVE IT!” | BEHOLD, PRESTO, SHAZAM, VOILÀ |
| 🟢 Green | “KNACK” | FORTE, GIFT, STRENGTH, TALENT |
| 🔵 Blue | “WHAT “P” MIGHT STAND FOR” | PAGE, PARK, PHOSPHORUS, PIANO |
| 🟣 Purple | “KEY ___” | CHAIN, LARGO, LIME, SIGNATURE |
Today’s Connections — expert analysis
The natural entry point was the yellow set: BEHOLD, PRESTO, SHAZAM and VOILÀ are all exclamations — they pop out immediately because they’re stylistically distinct from the rest of the board. If you spotted even two of them early you could safely lock the whole group down. That made yellow the easiest group on this board.
The hardest group was the purple “KEY ___”. It’s a tidy theme once you see it — KEY CHAIN, KEY LARGO, KEY LIME, KEY SIGNATURE — but several words on the board create plausible decoys. Musical terms (FORTE, PIANO, LARGO, PRESTO) invite a music-based grouping, and words like PAGE and SIGNATURE look pairable (signature page), which tempts early misfires. PHOSPHORUS and PIANO both support the blue “P” theme (chemical symbol P, and the piano dynamics abbreviation), yet PIANO also reads as a musical decoy for FORTE or LARGO. Those overlaps are why purple and blue felt tricky.
If you were stuck, spend your first safe guess on a word from the yellow exclamation set — VOILÀ or BEHOLD are low-risk opens that usually pay off. After that, test a clear blue candidate like PHOSPHORUS (the P hint is distinctive) before committing to the musical cluster; FORTE and PIANO are excellent watch-words for cross-checking because they sit on the fence between the green synonyms and the music decoys.
Difficulty: 3.5/5 — overlapping musical terms and phrase-pair decoys make the midgame fiddly.
Yesterday’s NYT Connections answers (Game #1171)
For comparison, here are yesterday’s solved groups from Game #1171.
- 🟡 Yellow (SURFACE-LEVEL): COSMETIC, ONE-DIMENSIONAL, SKIN-DEEP, SUPERFICIAL
- 🟢 Green (SCI-FI PHENOMENA): HYPERSPACE, PARALLEL UNIVERSE, TELEPORTATION, TIME WARP
- 🔵 Blue (STEPHEN KING FILM ADAPTATIONS, WITH “THE”): GREEN MILE, LONG WALK, RUNNING MAN, SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
- 🟣 Purple (ENDING IN ICE CREAM ORDERS): HARLEM SHAKE, INSIDE SCOOP, LICKETY-SPLIT, TRAFFIC CONE
What is NYT Connections?
NYT Connections is a daily word-classification game where you sort 16 words into four thematic groups of four. The groups can be literal synonyms, compound-phrase partners, categories, or clever wordplay, and finding one group often helps expose the others.
How to play NYT Connections
- Scan the 16 words and look for any obvious quartet (stylistic outliers are great starters).
- Make a safe guess by selecting a word you’re confident belongs together; use confirmed matches to test tougher overlaps.
- Repeat until all four groups of four are identified — beware of words that plausibly belong to multiple themes.
Past week’s NYT Connections answers
Missed a day? Full solutions from earlier this week, newest first.
Game #1170 — August 24
- 🟡 FISH: MULLET, PIKE, SOLE, TANG
- 🟢 PRINCIPAL: ARCH, CHIEF, MAIN, PRIME
- 🔵 PRO-WRESTLING LINGO: FACE, HEEL, JOBBER, KAYFABE
- 🟣 LETTER HOMOPHONE PLUS TENNIS TERM: BESET, DESERVE, EX-LOVE, EYELET
Game #1169 — August 23
- 🟡 POTENTIALLY EXPLOSIVE THINGS: POWDER KEG, TIME BOMB, TINDERBOX, VOLCANO
- 🟢 DOUBLE VOWELS: ANTIFREEZE, BAZAAR, SKIING, VACUUM
- 🔵 MADE WITH POTATOES: HOME FRIES, POTATO BATTERY, VICHYSSOISE, VODKA
- 🟣 HOUSEHOLD STAIN REMOVERS: BAKING SODA, CLUB SODA, HYDROGEN PEROXIDE, VINEGAR
Game #1168 — August 22
- 🟡 CARPENTRY TOOLS: CHISEL, HAMMER, PLANE, SAW
- 🟢 KINDS OF MELON: BITTER, MUSK, WATER, WINTER
- 🔵 GARDEN HOSE SETTINGS: CONE, JET, MIST, SHOWER
- 🟣 ___ GIRLS OF POP CULTURE: GILMORE, GOLDEN, MEAN, SPICE
Game #1167 — August 21
- 🟡 THINGS MOST ANIMALS NEED: NUTRITION, OXYGEN, SLEEP, WATER
- 🟢 CALLS TO BEGIN A PERFORMANCE: ACTION, CURTAIN UP, PLACES, SHOWTIME
- 🔵 ___ KIDS: COMEBACK, KARATE, SUNDANCE, WIMPY
- 🟣 ONCE IN A ___: BLUE MOON, GENERATION, LIFETIME, WHILE
Game #1166 — August 20
- 🟡 KINDS OF PIZZA: DIAVOLA, HAWAIIAN, MEAT LOVERS, WHITE
- 🟢 KINDS OF NUMBERS: ATOMIC, SERIAL, SOCIAL SECURITY, TELEPHONE
- 🔵 SIMILARLY SHAPED TYPOGRAPHICAL MARKS: APOSTROPHE, CEDILLA, COMMA, OKINA
- 🟣 STARTING WITH CHINESE ZODIAC ANIMALS: DRAGONFLY, OXFORD, PIGMENT, RATCHET
Game #1165 — August 19
- 🟡 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
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 — we keep the past week of solutions right here on this page. Scroll up to the “Past week’s NYT Connections answers” section for every recent grid, newest first, plus a full breakdown of yesterday’s puzzle.
