NYT Connections #1222 answer & hints: Thursday, October 15, 2026

Updated: Thursday, October 15, 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 #1222 of Thursday, October 15, 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 15, 2026)

1One word from each group

Yellow (easiest): one of its words is “CURE”.
Green (easy): one of its words is “BASKET”.
Blue (tricky): one of its words is “BASE”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): one of its words is “CANNON”.

2Category hints (no answers)

Yellow (easiest): the theme is “Ways to preserve food”.
Green (easy): the theme is “Things you can score in sports”.
Blue (tricky): the theme is “Lowest part”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): the theme is “Low landforms with a letter changed”.

3One full group revealed

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Ways to preserve food”, and its four words are: CURE, DRY, PICKLE, SMOKE.

Connections answers — October 15, 2026 (#1222)

★Today's full Connections answers, explained

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Ways to preserve food”. The words: CURE, DRY, PICKLE, SMOKE.
Green (easy) — the connection is “Things you can score in sports”. The words: BASKET, GOAL, RUN, TOUCHDOWN.
Blue (tricky) — the connection is “Lowest part”. The words: BASE, BOTTOM, FOOT, FOUNDATION.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay) — the connection is “Low landforms with a letter changed”. The words: CANNON, FORGE, RACINE, VOLLEY.

The puzzle, explained

The purple group was a killer because it required you to recognize that each word is a *landform with one letter swapped out*—CANNON is CANYON, FORGE is GORGE, RACINE is RAVINE, and VOLLEY is VALLEY. The real trap was that FOUNDATION, BASE, BOTTOM, and FOOT all genuinely describe the "lowest part" of something, so your brain kept trying to force them into a coherent group. And GOAL, RUN, BASKET, and TOUCHDOWN felt like they belonged together as scoreable sports moments, which made it even harder to see that BASE actually fits the "lowest part" category instead. The wordplay twist on landforms was sneaky enough, but the misdirection from the other groups' legitimate meanings made it brutally tough.

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

Full Connections archive (185 puzzles) → · How to play Connections (and win more) →