If today’s New York Times Connections grid has you burning through your mistakes, you are not alone. Puzzle #1165 features some heavy misdirection, with several words seemingly fitting into a food or tech 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 Base and Foot look like they belong in a measurement or math category, while Hide and Mask could easily be mistaken for clothing or costume terms.
Committing to those wrong groups early will cost you lives. We recommend looking at the less obvious categories first, especially the Purple group. It relies on sound-alike wordplay instead of literal meaning, 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): Common idioms for something very easy to do.
- 🟩 Green Group Hint (Medium): Words that all mean to keep something out of sight or secret.
- 🟦 Blue Group Hint (Hard): These words all come right before the word ball in popular sports or game names.
- 🟪 Purple Group Hint (Tricky): Each word sounds exactly like the title of a well-known CGI-animated film. Think pronunciation instead of spelling!
Stuck on one word? If you have Rheo, try saying it out loud rather than thinking about what it means. It might belong to the trickier Purple 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 19, 2026, Wednesday Puzzle #1165
Here are the completed categories and groupings for today’s puzzle:
🟨 Yellow Group: Piece Of Cake
- Breeze
- Cinch
- Picnic
- Snap
🟩 Green Group: Conceal
- Blanket
- Hide
- Mask
- Obscure
🟦 Blue Group: Words Before Ball In Sport Names
- Base
- Basket
- Foot
- Pickle
🟪 Purple Group: Homophones Of CGI-Animated Films
- Ants
- Cocoa
- Rheo
- Seoul
Yesterday’s Answer
This is yesterday’s NYT Connections answer for August 18, 2026, Puzzle #1164.
🟨 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
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 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!
