If today’s New York Times Connections grid has you burning through your mistakes, you are not alone. Puzzle #1164 features some heavy misdirection, with several words seemingly fitting into a medical or sports theme before pulling the rug out from under you.
Below are strategic, spoiler-free hints to help you group today’s words on your own, followed by the exact categories and answers at the bottom of the page.
Today’s Connections Strategy & Commentary
Watch out for the red herrings today. At first glance, words like Basketball and Sweet Potato look like they belong in a food or sports category, while Paparazzi and Red Carpet could easily be mistaken for general media terms.
Committing to those wrong groups early will cost you lives. We recommend looking at the less obvious categories first, the Green group is all about acronyms, and that will help you clear the board much faster.
Connections Hints Today: Category Clues
If you just need a nudge to get your brain moving in the right direction, here are clues for the four color-coded groups:
- 🟨 Yellow Group Hint (Easiest): Things you would see at a glamorous movie premiere event.
- 🟩 Green Group Hint (Medium): Each phrase is shortened using the first letter of each word, they all mean “PJs.”
- 🟦 Blue Group Hint (Hard): Every item in this group shares the same bright warm color.
- 🟪 Purple Group Hint (Tricky): These words all describe something rough, gritty, or textured.
Stuck on one word? If you have Velvet Rope, try thinking about where you would actually see one rather than what it’s made of. It might belong to the easier Yellow group today!
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: The full answers are listed below. If you still want to solve the grid yourself using the clues above, do not scroll down.
NYT Connections Answers Today for August 18, 2026, Tuesday Puzzle #1164
Here are the completed categories and groupings for today’s puzzle:
🟨 Yellow Group: Seen At A Movie Premiere
- Limousine
- Paparazzi
- Red Carpet
- Velvet Rope
🟩 Green Group: PJs
- Petroleum Jelly
- Poetic Justice
- Practical Joke
- Private Jet
🟦 Blue Group: Things That Are Orange
- Basketball
- Orangutan
- Sweet Potato
- Traffic Cone
🟪 Purple Group: Things That Are Gritty
- Cowboy Coffee
- Film Noir
- Flyers Mascot
- Sandpaper
Yesterday’s Answer
This is yesterday’s NYT Connections answer for August 17, 2026, Puzzle #1163.
🟨 Yellow Group: Video Call Platforms
- Huddle
- Meet
- Teams
- Zoom
🟩 Green Group: Spreadsheet Features
- Formula
- Function
- Macro
- Script
🟦 Blue Group: First Names Of Country Music Legends
- Dolly
- Johnny
- Patsy
- Willie
🟪 Purple Group: Starting With Pets
- Birdie
- Cattle
- Dogie
- Fisheye
For a complete list, visit our Connections archive.
Try Today’s Other NYT Games Solutions
Keep your winning streak alive across the entire NYT Games ecosystem. Check out our daily guides for today’s other popular puzzles like Today’s Wordle and Today’s NYT Strands solutions.
Did today’s puzzle give you a perfect “Reverse Rainbow” (solving Purple to Yellow), or did the red herrings wipe out your board?
Share your results grid or vent about today’s trickiest crossover words in the comments below!
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