NYT Connections #1185 answer & hints: Tuesday, September 8, 2026

Updated: Tuesday, September 8, 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 #1185 of Tuesday, September 8, 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 8, 2026)

1One word from each group

Yellow (easiest): one of its words is “CORVETTE”.
Green (easy): one of its words is “BERET”.
Blue (tricky): one of its words is “ARTICHOKE”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): one of its words is “DOVES”.

2Category hints (no answers)

Yellow (easiest): the theme is “Classic american performance cars”.
Green (easy): the theme is “Features of a mime costume”.
Blue (tricky): the theme is “___ heart”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): the theme is “Candy bars plus a letter”.

3One full group revealed

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Classic american performance cars”, and its four words are: CORVETTE, FIREBIRD, MUSTANG, VIPER.

Connections answers — September 8, 2026 (#1185)

★Today's full Connections answers, explained

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Classic american performance cars”. The words: CORVETTE, FIREBIRD, MUSTANG, VIPER.
Green (easy) — the connection is “Features of a mime costume”. The words: BERET, GLOVES, STRIPES, SUSPENDERS.
Blue (tricky) — the connection is “___ heart”. The words: ARTICHOKE, PURPLE, SACRED, TAKE TO.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay) — the connection is “Candy bars plus a letter”. The words: DOVES, MARSH, SKORT, TWIXT.

The puzzle, explained

The purple group was a beast because it required recognizing that each word is a candy bar with an extra letter added—DOVES (from DOVE), MARSH (from MARS), SKORT (from SNICKERS minus the NI, wait, actually MARS + H), and TWIXT (from TWIX + T). The real trap was that PURPLE and STRIPES looked like they belonged together as mime costume elements, and SUSPENDERS almost felt like it could join them, which pulled focus away from the candy bar mechanic. SACRED and TAKE TO were similarly deceptive as the "___ HEART" group since SACRED HEART and TAKE TO HEART are both legitimate phrases, making that blue category surprisingly thorny once you spotted it. The yellow group was straightforward car nostalgia, which made the green mime costume words feel like an easy gimme—until the purple twist revealed that STRIPES wasn't about fashion at all, but about HERSHEY'S STRIPES.

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) →