NYT Connections #1190 answer & hints: Sunday, September 13, 2026

Updated: Sunday, September 13, 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 #1190 of Sunday, September 13, 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 13, 2026)

1One word from each group

Yellow (easiest): one of its words is “DROOPY”.
Green (easy): one of its words is “CLEVELAND”.
Blue (tricky): one of its words is “EMPTY”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): one of its words is “DOUBLESPEAK”.

2Category hints (no answers)

Yellow (easiest): the theme is “Lacking in firmness”.
Green (easy): the theme is “U.s. presidents”.
Blue (tricky): the theme is “Words that sound like two letters”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): the theme is “Ending in elevated landforms”.

3One full group revealed

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Lacking in firmness”, and its four words are: DROOPY, FLACCID, SAGGING, SLACK.

Connections answers — September 13, 2026 (#1190)

★Today's full Connections answers, explained

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Lacking in firmness”. The words: DROOPY, FLACCID, SAGGING, SLACK.
Green (easy) — the connection is “U.s. presidents”. The words: CLEVELAND, GARFIELD, GRANT, MADISON.
Blue (tricky) — the connection is “Words that sound like two letters”. The words: EMPTY, EXCESS, KEWPIE, ODIE.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay) — the connection is “Ending in elevated landforms”. The words: DOUBLESPEAK, HEATHCLIFF, PARAMOUNT, PORRIDGE.

The puzzle, explained

# NYT Connections - Today's Puzzle The purple group's brilliance lies in the hidden geography: each word ends with a landform when you split it creatively. DOUBLE**SPEAK** becomes DOUBLE PEAK, HEATH**CLIFF** is HEATH CLIFF, PARA**MOUNT** hides PARA MOUNT, and PORRIDGE ends with RIDGE. It's the kind of wordplay that makes you groan once you see it. The real trap was GARFIELD and CLEVELAND—both famous lasagna-loving cartoon cats who could've easily tricked you into thinking they were just presidents, when they're actually in the green group. Similarly, EXCESS sounds like "X's" (the letter), which almost lures you toward the blue group of words that sound like letters, but it belongs with the presidents instead.

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) →