NYT Connections #1197 answer & hints: Sunday, September 20, 2026

Updated: Sunday, September 20, 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 #1197 of Sunday, September 20, 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 20, 2026)

1One word from each group

Yellow (easiest): one of its words is “BLU-RAY”.
Green (easy): one of its words is “BLUEGRASS”.
Blue (tricky): one of its words is “BLADE”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): one of its words is “HOVER”.

2Category hints (no answers)

Yellow (easiest): the theme is “Round flat things”.
Green (easy): the theme is “Associated with kentucky”.
Blue (tricky): the theme is “Vampire movies”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): the theme is “___boards you ride on”.

3One full group revealed

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Round flat things”, and its four words are: BLU-RAY, COASTER, SAND DOLLAR, TORTILLA.

Connections answers — September 20, 2026 (#1197)

★Today's full Connections answers, explained

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Round flat things”. The words: BLU-RAY, COASTER, SAND DOLLAR, TORTILLA.
Green (easy) — the connection is “Associated with kentucky”. The words: BLUEGRASS, BOURBON, DERBY, FRIED CHICKEN.
Blue (tricky) — the connection is “Vampire movies”. The words: BLADE, NEAR DARK, SINNERS, TWILIGHT.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay) — the connection is “___boards you ride on”. The words: HOVER, SKATE, SNOW, SURF.

The puzzle, explained

The purple group's genius was that it's not about the boards themselves—it's about what comes *before* the word "board." HOVER, SKATE, SNOW, and SURF all precede "board" to make compound words or phrases (hoverboard, skateboard, snowboard, surfboard), which is a completely different solving angle than the straightforward "round flat things" category. The real trap was SKATEBOARD hiding in plain sight with the blue vampire movies, since BLADE is obviously a vampire flick with Wesley Snipes, making you second-guess whether SKATE belonged there instead. Similarly, TWILIGHT could've felt like it belonged in the round flat things (since discs are round), but it's actually the vampire movie, while BLU-RAY was the one doing double duty as both a disc *and* a tempting red herring for the Kentucky group if you weren't careful. Once you locked in the wordplay pattern for purple, the whole puzzle snapped into place.

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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