NYT Connections #1226 answer & hints: Monday, October 19, 2026

Updated: Monday, October 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 #1226 of Monday, October 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 (October 19, 2026)

1One word from each group

Yellow (easiest): one of its words is “BOIL”.
Green (easy): one of its words is “BLATHER”.
Blue (tricky): one of its words is “FLURRY”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): one of its words is “ALIBIS”.

2Category hints (no answers)

Yellow (easiest): the theme is “Seethe”.
Green (easy): the theme is “All talk”.
Blue (tricky): the theme is “"mc" things at mcdonald's”.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay): the theme is “Ending in birds”.

3One full group revealed

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Seethe”, and its four words are: BOIL, FUME, RAVE, STEAM.

Connections answers — October 19, 2026 (#1226)

★Today's full Connections answers, explained

Yellow (easiest) — the connection is “Seethe”. The words: BOIL, FUME, RAVE, STEAM.
Green (easy) — the connection is “All talk”. The words: BLATHER, GAS, HOT AIR, WIND.
Blue (tricky) — the connection is “"mc" things at mcdonald's”. The words: FLURRY, MUFFIN, NUGGETS, RIB.
Purple (trickiest, usually wordplay) — the connection is “Ending in birds”. The words: ALIBIS, BALLOON, ESCROW, MOHAWK.

The puzzle, explained

Today's puzzle had a sneaky purple category that required thinking about word endings rather than meanings—ALIBIS, BALLOON, ESCROW, and MOHAWK all end in bird names (I, LOON, ROW, and HAWK). The real trap was that WIND and GAS fit the "all talk" category so perfectly that they were easy to spot, which made it harder to see how WIND could theoretically hide in a word like WINDROW. NUGGETS and RIB were also baits since they're actual McDonald's menu items, but the category specifically needed the "MC" prefix to work (McNuggets, McRib), which pulled them toward the blue group instead. That purple category really punished anyone who was thinking literally about word meanings rather than their hidden structure.

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) →