NYT Connections #1201 answer & hints: Thursday, September 24, 2026

Updated: Thursday, September 24, 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 #1201 of Thursday, September 24, 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 24, 2026)

1One word from each group

Yellow (easiest): one of its words is “CAPE”.
Green (easy): one of its words is “BOBBLEHEAD”.
Blue (tricky): one of its words is “CREATION OF ADAM”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): one of its words is “BEER HAT”.

2Category hints (no answers)

Yellow (easiest): the theme is “Parts of a vampire costume”.
Green (easy): the theme is “Things with spring/s”.
Blue (tricky): the theme is “Featuring pointing”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): the theme is “Anagrams”.

3One full group revealed

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Parts of a vampire costume”, and its four words are: CAPE, FACE PAINT, FAKE BLOOD, FANGS.

Connections answers — September 24, 2026 (#1201)

★Today's full Connections answers, explained

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Parts of a vampire costume”. The words: CAPE, FACE PAINT, FAKE BLOOD, FANGS.
Green (easy) — the connection is “Things with spring/s”. The words: BOBBLEHEAD, POGO STICK, SNAKES IN A CAN, TRAMPOLINE.
Blue (tricky) — the connection is “Featuring pointing”. The words: CREATION OF ADAM, FOAM FINGER, I'M WITH STUPID SHIRT, UNCLE SAM.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay) — the connection is “Anagrams”. The words: BEER HAT, BREATHE, HERB TEA, THE BEAR.

The puzzle, explained

The purple group's trick was that all four words are anagrams of each other—BEER HAT, BREATHE, HERB TEA, and THE BEAR all use the exact same letters rearranged. It's a clever category because nothing about these phrases screams "we're related" at first glance, so you had to notice the letter pattern rather than a semantic connection. BREATHE was probably the biggest trap since it's a common word that made you think it belonged in a totally different puzzle, when really it just shares letters with the costume and beverage items. The blue group about pointing (CREATION OF ADAM, FOAM FINGER, I'M WITH STUPID SHIRT, and UNCLE SAM) likely caught people too, especially if they were thinking BREATHE had something to do with taking a breath or calming down—but no, it's just a scrambled anagram sitting there to confuse you.

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.

More of today's puzzles

LinkedIn puzzles

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) →