NYT Connections #1180 answer & hints: Thursday, September 3, 2026

Updated: Thursday, September 3, 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 #1180 of Thursday, September 3, 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 (September 3, 2026)

1One word from each group

Yellow (easiest): one of its words is “BLINK”.
Green (easy): one of its words is “CARMINE”.
Blue (tricky): one of its words is “HOT WHEELS”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): one of its words is “AVERAGE”.

2Category hints (no answers)

Yellow (easiest): the theme is “Two shakes of a lamb's tail”.
Green (easy): the theme is “Shades of red”.
Blue (tricky): the theme is “Toy car brands”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): the theme is “Spreadsheet functions”.

3One full group revealed

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Two shakes of a lamb's tail”, and its four words are: BLINK, FLASH, HEARTBEAT, TRICE.

Connections answers — September 3, 2026 (#1180)

★Today's full Connections answers, explained

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Two shakes of a lamb's tail”. The words: BLINK, FLASH, HEARTBEAT, TRICE.
Green (easy) — the connection is “Shades of red”. The words: CARMINE, CINNABAR, MAROON, VERMILLION.
Blue (tricky) — the connection is “Toy car brands”. The words: HOT WHEELS, MATCHBOX, MICRO MACHINES, TONKA.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay) — the connection is “Spreadsheet functions”. The words: AVERAGE, COUNT, MAX, SUM.

The puzzle, explained

The purple group's genius was that AVERAGE, COUNT, MAX, and SUM are all common English words that disguise their real identity as Excel functions—they're hiding in plain sight as everyday vocabulary. The real trap was the blue group: HOT WHEELS, MATCHBOX, and MICRO MACHINES are obviously toy car brands, so MAX felt like it had to belong there since it's also a toy line, but it actually sneaks into the purple group as a spreadsheet function instead. TONKA nearly had the same problem since it's a toy brand too, but the puzzle makers smartly included it in blue to reinforce that false pattern. The yellow group's "Two Shakes of a Lamb's Tail" connection was straightforward once you got it—all four words mean a very short time—but that left the red color names (CARMINE, CINNABAR, MAROON, VERMILLION) as the clearest path forward once you eliminated everything else.

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

Full Connections archive (137 puzzles) → · How to play Connections (and win more) →