NYT Connections #1194 answer & hints: Thursday, September 17, 2026

Updated: Thursday, September 17, 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 #1194 of Thursday, September 17, 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 17, 2026)

1One word from each group

Yellow (easiest): one of its words is “BOUNCE”.
Green (easy): one of its words is “MINE SHAFT”.
Blue (tricky): one of its words is “FOUNTAIN”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): one of its words is “HANDLES”.

2Category hints (no answers)

Yellow (easiest): the theme is “Elasticity”.
Green (easy): the theme is “Things that are underground”.
Blue (tricky): the theme is “Hugh jackman movies, with "the"”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): the theme is “Love ___”.

3One full group revealed

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Elasticity”, and its four words are: BOUNCE, FLEXIBILITY, GIVE, SPRING.

Connections answers — September 17, 2026 (#1194)

★Today's full Connections answers, explained

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Elasticity”. The words: BOUNCE, FLEXIBILITY, GIVE, SPRING.
Green (easy) — the connection is “Things that are underground”. The words: MINE SHAFT, SEWER LINE, SUBWAY STATION, WELL.
Blue (tricky) — the connection is “Hugh jackman movies, with "the"”. The words: FOUNTAIN, PRESTIGE, SHEEP DETECTIVES, WOLVERINE.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay) — the connection is “Love ___”. The words: HANDLES, LANGUAGE, TAP, TRIANGLE.

The puzzle, explained

The purple group's brilliance lies in the phrase "LOVE ___" — each word completes a well-known compound or phrase: love handles, love language, love tap, and love triangle. What makes it devious is that BOUNCE, FLEXIBILITY, GIVE, and SPRING all genuinely describe elasticity, so yellow feels airtight until you spot the real connections elsewhere. The blue group with Hugh Jackman movies was also a trap because THE PRESTIGE and THE FOUNTAIN are legitimately famous Jackman films, but they're hiding among wordplay answers, making solvers second-guess whether they're looking for movie titles or something else. LANGUAGE in particular probably baited people thinking about the elasticity group since "flexibility" and "give" suggest linguistic flexibility, but it belongs entirely to the love phrase category.

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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