If today’s New York Times Connections grid has you burning through your mistakes, you are not alone. Puzzle #1163 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 Formula and Script look like they belong together as writing or math terms, while Zoom and Birdie could easily be mistaken for golf vocabulary.
Committing to those wrong groups early will cost you lives. We recommend separating technology and business words first, then looking closely at how each word starts rather than its everyday meaning.
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): Platforms commonly used for online meetings and video calls.
- 🟩 Green Group Hint (Medium): Tools or operations used when working with spreadsheets.
- 🟦 Blue Group Hint (Hard): The first names of legendary country music performers.
- 🟪 Purple Group Hint (Tricky): Words that form a compound word when you add “Pet” at the start.
Stuck on one word? If you have Dogie, try thinking about it as part of a longer phrase rather than its literal meaning. 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 17, 2026, Monday Puzzle #1163
Here are the completed categories and groupings for today’s puzzle:
🟨 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
Yesterday’s Answer
This is yesterday’s NYT Connections answer for August 16, 2026, Puzzle #1162.
🟨 Yellow Group: Musical Performance
- Concert
- Gig
- Set
- Show
🟩 Green Group: Participant
- Actor
- Agent
- Party
- Player
🟦 Blue Group: Family Relationship Modifiers
- Grand
- Great
- Half
- Step
🟪 Purple Group: Descriptors for Our Human Ancestors
- From Neander
- Handy
- Upright
- Wise
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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