NYT Connections #1196 answer & hints: Saturday, September 19, 2026

Updated: Saturday, September 19, 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 #1196 of Saturday, September 19, 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 19, 2026)

1One word from each group

Yellow (easiest): one of its words is “BRANCH OUT”.
Green (easy): one of its words is “HOUSE”.
Blue (tricky): one of its words is “CARNABY STREET”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): one of its words is “COS LETTUCE”.

2Category hints (no answers)

Yellow (easiest): the theme is “Widen one's scope”.
Green (easy): the theme is “Features of a kid's drawing”.
Blue (tricky): the theme is “Associated with swinging london in the 1960s”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): the theme is “Starting with abbreviated math functions”.

3One full group revealed

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Widen one's scope”, and its four words are: BRANCH OUT, DIVERSIFY, EXPAND, GROW.

Connections answers — September 19, 2026 (#1196)

★Today's full Connections answers, explained

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Widen one's scope”. The words: BRANCH OUT, DIVERSIFY, EXPAND, GROW.
Green (easy) — the connection is “Features of a kid's drawing”. The words: HOUSE, STICK FIGURE, SUN, TREE.
Blue (tricky) — the connection is “Associated with swinging london in the 1960s”. The words: CARNABY STREET, MINISKIRT, MOD, TWIGGY.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay) — the connection is “Starting with abbreviated math functions”. The words: COS LETTUCE, LOG CABIN, SIN CITY, TAN LINE.

The puzzle, explained

The purple group was a killer because it hides math abbreviations right at the start of everyday phrases—COS (cosine) in COS LETTUCE, LOG (logarithm) in LOG CABIN, SIN (sine) in SIN CITY, and TAN (tangent) in TAN LINE. The real trap was that SIN CITY could easily have felt like it belonged with the 1960s London group (blue), since Vegas has that retro mod glamour vibe, which probably sent a lot of people down the wrong path. Similarly, TWIGGY from the blue group might've tempted you to wonder if there was a fashion/style connection with MINISKIRT, creating that doubt right when you needed confidence. Once you spotted the math function pattern though, it all clicked into place beautifully.

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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