NYT Connections #1214 answer & hints: Wednesday, October 7, 2026

Updated: Wednesday, October 7, 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 #1214 of Wednesday, October 7, 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 (October 7, 2026)

1One word from each group

Yellow (easiest): one of its words is “BANK”.
Green (easy): one of its words is “CINNAMON”.
Blue (tricky): one of its words is “DICHOTOMY”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): one of its words is “CHOREOGRAPHY”.

2Category hints (no answers)

Yellow (easiest): the theme is “Save for later”.
Green (easy): the theme is “Kinds of buns”.
Blue (tricky): the theme is “Greek numerical prefixes”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): the theme is “Best ___ tony awards”.

3One full group revealed

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Save for later”, and its four words are: BANK, SQUIRREL, STASH, STORE.

Connections answers — October 7, 2026 (#1214)

★Today's full Connections answers, explained

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Save for later”. The words: BANK, SQUIRREL, STASH, STORE.
Green (easy) — the connection is “Kinds of buns”. The words: CINNAMON, HAMBURGER, HOT DOG, STICKY.
Blue (tricky) — the connection is “Greek numerical prefixes”. The words: DICHOTOMY, MONOLOGUE, TETRACYCLINE, TRIDENT.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay) — the connection is “Best ___ tony awards”. The words: CHOREOGRAPHY, MUSICAL, ORCHESTRATIONS, PLAY.

The puzzle, explained

The purple group's genius was that all four words complete the phrase "Best ___ Tony Award" — but they're not actually separate categories you'd naturally think of together. MUSICAL and PLAY feel like obvious Tony categories, so they lure you into thinking it's just "types of shows," but then CHOREOGRAPHY and ORCHESTRATIONS force you to realize it's specifically about the "Best ___" award names, which is a much tighter connection. The real trap was MUSICAL, which could've easily belonged with the buns group if HOT DOG BUNS suddenly became "hot dog musical" in your brain — or worse, it might've felt like it belonged with some theatrical category that didn't exist. PLAY was similarly sneaky since it's such a fundamental theater word that it could've distracted you from the wordplay pattern the puzzle was actually going for.

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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