NYT Connections #1170 answer & hints: Monday, August 24, 2026

Updated: Monday, August 24, 2026 · Hints reviewed by Omer Liban · New puzzle daily at midnight US Eastern Time (5am UK). · Puzzle editor: Wyna Liu.

This page has every level of help for the NYT Connections puzzle #1170 of Monday, August 24, 2026: 3 spoiler-free hint tiers that narrow things down step by step, followed by the complete answers with explanations — each behind its own tap-to-reveal card.

Stuck on today's Connections? Work through the hint tiers below — each one gives away a little more, so you can get exactly as much help as you want and still keep the win.

New to Connections? The four answer groups are colour-coded by difficulty: 🟡 yellow is the easiest, then 🟢 green, 🔵 blue, and 🟣 purple — the trickiest, usually built on wordplay. The hints below use those colours.

Connections hints (August 24, 2026)

1One word from each group

Yellow (easiest): one of its words is “MULLET”.
Green (easy): one of its words is “ARCH”.
Blue (tricky): one of its words is “FACE”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): one of its words is “BESET”.

2Category hints (no answers)

Yellow (easiest): the theme is “Fish”.
Green (easy): the theme is “Principal”.
Blue (tricky): the theme is “Pro-wrestling lingo”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): the theme is “Letter homophone plus tennis term”.

3One full group revealed

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Fish”, and its four words are: MULLET, PIKE, SOLE, TANG.

Connections answers — August 24, 2026 (#1170)

★Today's full Connections answers, explained

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Fish”. The words: MULLET, PIKE, SOLE, TANG.
Green (easy) — the connection is “Principal”. The words: ARCH, CHIEF, MAIN, PRIME.
Blue (tricky) — the connection is “Pro-wrestling lingo”. The words: FACE, HEEL, JOBBER, KAYFABE.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay) — the connection is “Letter homophone plus tennis term”. The words: BESET, DESERVE, EX-LOVE, EYELET.

The puzzle, explained

The purple group was a real head-scratcher because it required hearing words as letter homophones fused with tennis terminology—BESET sounds like "B" + "set," DESERVE is "D" + "serve," EX-LOVE is "X" + "love," and EYELET is "I" + "let." What made this especially tricky is that SOLE and ARCH could easily trick you into the purple group since they're also homophones (SOLE = "soul," ARCH = "R"), but they belonged with the fish instead. FACE was another sneaky trap since it's a pro-wrestling term but also sounds like it could be a letter homophone, making you second-guess whether it fit with the purple wordplay rather than the blue wrestling category. Once you spotted the tennis connection in purple, though, the puzzle clicked into place nicely.

Next in today's routine: Wordle → · every game's answers on one page. New puzzle daily at midnight US Eastern Time (5am UK). Bookmark this page for tomorrow's hints. Or play Connections on the official site.

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Connections — common questions

What time does NYT Connections reset?

A new Connections puzzle is released daily at midnight US Eastern Time — that's 5am in the UK (4am during US daylight-saving transitions) and 12:00am for US East Coast players.

What do the Connections colours mean?

Yellow is the easiest group, then green, then blue, and purple is the trickiest — purple usually involves wordplay such as homophones, hidden words or 'words before/after X'.

How many mistakes are allowed in Connections?

You can make four mistakes before the puzzle ends. If you see 'one away…', exactly three of your four selected words belong together.

Previous Connections puzzles

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