NYT Connections #1181 answer & hints: Friday, September 4, 2026

Updated: Friday, September 4, 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 #1181 of Friday, September 4, 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 4, 2026)

1One word from each group

Yellow (easiest): one of its words is “BOWLING BALL”.
Green (easy): one of its words is “CAKE DONUT”.
Blue (tricky): one of its words is “CONGER”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): one of its words is “CRINGY”.

2Category hints (no answers)

Yellow (easiest): the theme is “Spherical things”.
Green (easy): the theme is “Food whose name is two foods”.
Blue (tricky): the theme is “Kinds of eels”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): the theme is “Accessories inside starting and ending letters”.

3One full group revealed

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Spherical things”, and its four words are: BOWLING BALL, EYE, MOON, ORANGE.

Connections answers — September 4, 2026 (#1181)

★Today's full Connections answers, explained

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Spherical things”. The words: BOWLING BALL, EYE, MOON, ORANGE.
Green (easy) — the connection is “Food whose name is two foods”. The words: CAKE DONUT, CANDY CORN, CHERRY TOMATO, PIZZA PIE.
Blue (tricky) — the connection is “Kinds of eels”. The words: CONGER, GULPER, MORAY, RIBBON.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay) — the connection is “Accessories inside starting and ending letters”. The words: CRINGY, OPINE, STIED, THAT'S.

The puzzle, explained

That purple group was deliciously sneaky—each word literally contains an accessory sandwiched between its starting and ending letters. "CRINGY" hides a RING, "OPINE" wraps around a PIN, "STIED" contains a TIE, and "THAT'S" has a HAT tucked inside. The real trap was probably confusing MORAY and CONGER with the purple group, since they're genuine types of eels and could've tempted you to overthink the accessory category as just "eel-related words" instead of catching the hidden objects. Same goes for RIBBON EEL—it's a real creature, so that blue category was fighting hard for your attention before you realized the wordplay pattern was hiding in plain sight all along.

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) →