NYT Connections #1191 answer & hints: Monday, September 14, 2026

Updated: Monday, September 14, 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 #1191 of Monday, September 14, 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 14, 2026)

1One word from each group

Yellow (easiest): one of its words is “COOT”.
Green (easy): one of its words is “CANARY”.
Blue (tricky): one of its words is “BAG”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): one of its words is “BLUE”.

2Category hints (no answers)

Yellow (easiest): the theme is “Waterbirds”.
Green (easy): the theme is “Informant”.
Blue (tricky): the theme is “Common single-use plastic items”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): the theme is “___grass”.

3One full group revealed

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Waterbirds”, and its four words are: COOT, GOOSE, LOON, TEAL.

Connections answers — September 14, 2026 (#1191)

★Today's full Connections answers, explained

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Waterbirds”. The words: COOT, GOOSE, LOON, TEAL.
Green (easy) — the connection is “Informant”. The words: CANARY, RAT, SNITCH, STOOLIE.
Blue (tricky) — the connection is “Common single-use plastic items”. The words: BAG, CUTLERY, STIRRER, STRAW.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay) — the connection is “___grass”. The words: BLUE, CRAB, LEMON, WHEAT.

The puzzle, explained

The purple category was all about things that can precede "GRASS"—bluegrass, crabgrass, lemongrass, and wheatgrass—which is a classic Connections move where the connection isn't about the words themselves but about what they pair with. The real trap here was that BLUE, CRAB, and LEMON are all animals or colors that could easily fit into the green "INFORMANT" category (canary, rat, snitch, stoolie) if you weren't thinking carefully, since they share that animal/nature vibe. Meanwhile, STRAW was the sneakiest bait for the plastic items group since it's such an obvious single-use plastic product, but it actually belonged nowhere and was doing its job as a distractor for the blue category. Once you realized the purple group was wordplay rather than definitions, the whole puzzle clicked into place, and suddenly wheatgrass stopped looking like a random health drink and started looking like the elegant answer it was.

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) →