NYT Connections #1186 answer & hints: Wednesday, September 9, 2026

Updated: Wednesday, September 9, 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 #1186 of Wednesday, September 9, 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 9, 2026)

1One word from each group

Yellow (easiest): one of its words is “BEWILDERING”.
Green (easy): one of its words is “MICROBREWERY”.
Blue (tricky): one of its words is “ARACHNOPHOBIA”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): one of its words is “BRUTE”.

2Category hints (no answers)

Yellow (easiest): the theme is “Hard to understand”.
Green (easy): the theme is “Words with "small" prefixes”.
Blue (tricky): the theme is “Horror movies”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): the theme is “Words before "force"”.

3One full group revealed

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Hard to understand”, and its four words are: BEWILDERING, ESOTERIC, INCOMPREHENSIBLE, OPAQUE.

Connections answers — September 9, 2026 (#1186)

★Today's full Connections answers, explained

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Hard to understand”. The words: BEWILDERING, ESOTERIC, INCOMPREHENSIBLE, OPAQUE.
Green (easy) — the connection is “Words with "small" prefixes”. The words: MICROBREWERY, MINIVAN, NANOTECHNOLOGY, PICOSECOND.
Blue (tricky) — the connection is “Horror movies”. The words: ARACHNOPHOBIA, HALLOWEEN, IT, SAW.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay) — the connection is “Words before "force"”. The words: BRUTE, ELECTROMAGNETIC, G, TASK.

The puzzle, explained

That purple group was devilishly clever because "BRUTE force," "ELECTROMAGNETIC force," "G force," and "TASK force" all work perfectly—but they're so different in nature that they don't *feel* like they belong together. The real trap was "IT," which absolutely screams horror movie (and it is one!) but could have lured you into thinking there might be another "__ force" hiding in the puzzle. "ARACHNOPHOBIA" was similarly tempting as a potential misdirect since it's such an obvious horror film, yet it belonged solidly in the movie category alongside "HALLOWEEN," "SAW," and "IT." The green group's prefix words were pretty straightforward once you spotted the pattern, which made the blue movie category feel like it should be harder—that's what made the purple "force" connection such a satisfying final aha moment.

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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