September 9, 2026
HARD TO UNDERSTAND: BEWILDERING, ESOTERIC, INCOMPREHENSIBLE, OPAQUE. WORDS WITH "SMALL" PREFIXES: MICROBREWERY, MINIVAN, NANOTECHNOLOGY, PICOSECOND. HORROR MOVIES: ARACHNOPHOBIA, HALLOWEEN, IT, SAW. WORDS BEFORE "FORCE": BRUTE, ELECTROMAGNETIC, G, TASK
The Connections groups today, puzzle #1,186.
Done. One more puzzle, sixty seconds ›Purple today is Words Before "force": BRUTE, ELECTROMAGNETIC, G, TASK. Purple is the group the setters build last, and it is usually a hidden word, a sound, or a phrase pattern rather than a plain category. If two of its words looked like they belonged in a different group, that was the point.
Connections #1,194, September 17, 2026: Elasticity (BOUNCE, FLEXIBILITY, GIVE, SPRING); Things That Are Underground (MINE SHAFT, SEWER LINE, SUBWAY STATION, WELL); Hugh Jackman Movies, With "the" (FOUNTAIN, PRESTIGE, SHEEP DETECTIVES, WOLVERINE); Love ___ (HANDLES, LANGUAGE, TAP, TRIANGLE). Yesterday's page ›
One real news sentence. Tap the five words a headline would keep. Same colours, five tries, one minute.
One real news sentence. Tap five of its words, in order, the five a headline would keep, then guess. Blue means right word, right spot. Orange means it is in the headline, somewhere else. Grey means it is not in it. Five tries. The result beats the process, the name or the job beats the place, and little words like a, the and of never count.
Yesterday: Karl Wenner turned 70 acres of his barley farm near Klamath Falls into a wetland, home now to 140 bird species and twenty thousand ducks. The five: Wenner turned farm into wetland.
| Date | # | Groups |
|---|---|---|
| September 17, 2026 | 1,194 | Elasticity · Things That Are Underground · Hugh Jackman Movies, With "the" · Love ___ |
| September 15, 2026 | 1,192 | Instruct · Parts Of A Whistling Kettle · Undercover Operative · Things That Appear At The End |
| September 14, 2026 | 1,191 | Waterbirds · Informant · Common Single-use Plastic Items · ___grass |
| September 13, 2026 | 1,190 | Lacking In Firmness · U.s. Presidents · Words That Sound Like Two Letters · Ending In Elevated Landforms |
| September 11, 2026 | 1,188 | People Hired For An Event · Internalize · Ways To Practice Self-care · Things That Are Pushed Metaphorically |
| September 10, 2026 | 1,187 | Chemical Elements · What You Might See Sticking Out Of A Window · Bruce Springsteen Classics · Ending In Synonyms For "happening Now" |
| September 7, 2026 | 1,184 | Quite The Saga · Parts Of A Bra · Associated With Pine Trees · Starting With Disney Characters |
You know Connections. This is one sentence instead of sixteen words, and you keep five. Every day there is one real news sentence, twenty to thirty words, something that actually happened. Your job is to tap the five words a headline would keep. Wordle colours score you: blue means the word is in the answer and in the right place, orange means it is in the answer but in a different place, grey means it is not in the headline. Five tries.
The answer follows the rules a newspaper desk uses. The result beats the process, so a pond that became a wildlife habitat beats the digging. A name you can picture beats a count. The glue words, a, the, of, and, never count. When you finish, the game shows every word in the sentence and why it lived or why it died, and then tells you the true story behind the sentence.
It is free, no account, and your streak lives on this device. There is a Hard mode for people who want a second, longer sentence with three tries.
For September 9, 2026, puzzle #1,186: HARD TO UNDERSTAND: BEWILDERING, ESOTERIC, INCOMPREHENSIBLE, OPAQUE. WORDS WITH "SMALL" PREFIXES: MICROBREWERY, MINIVAN, NANOTECHNOLOGY, PICOSECOND. HORROR MOVIES: ARACHNOPHOBIA, HALLOWEEN, IT, SAW. WORDS BEFORE "FORCE": BRUTE, ELECTROMAGNETIC, G, TASK.
Words Before "force": BRUTE, ELECTROMAGNETIC, G, TASK.
#1,194: Elasticity: BOUNCE, FLEXIBILITY, GIVE, SPRING. Things That Are Underground: MINE SHAFT, SEWER LINE, SUBWAY STATION, WELL. Hugh Jackman Movies, With "the": FOUNTAIN, PRESTIGE, SHEEP DETECTIVES, WOLVERINE. Love ___: HANDLES, LANGUAGE, TAP, TRIANGLE.
#1,186.
Within a few hours of midnight Eastern, once the day's board is confirmed by two sources. Today: 1:35 AM ET.
No. Official Connections is on the New York Times. This page is unofficial hints and answers, then Long Story Short, a different game.
