By Akash Wadhwani. Checked against two sources, updated 6:00 AM ET.
Sixteen words and four groups of four. Yellow is usually the straightforward one and purple is usually wordplay, so the hints below go one step at a time.
Hint 1: one word from each group
Yellow: one of the four is BOND.
Green: one of the four is MARTINI.
Blue: one of the four is BUGSY.
Purple: one of the four is DECENT.
Hint 2: the four categories
Yellow: Securities.
Green: Things That Are Shaken (Not Stirred).
Blue: Gangster Movies.
Purple: Starting With Month Abbreviations.
TAMBOURINESEPTUMDECENTBONDMARTINIOPTIONNOVELTYCASINOSPRAY PAINTOCTOPUSSYDONNIE BRASCOFUTUREBUGSYETCH A SKETCHSTOCKSCARFACE
Today's Connections groups, #1,207
Yellow, Securities: BOND, FUTURE, OPTION, STOCK.
Green, Things That Are Shaken (Not Stirred): ETCH A SKETCH, MARTINI, SPRAY PAINT, TAMBOURINE.
Purple, Starting With Month Abbreviations: DECENT, NOVELTY, OCTOPUSSY, SEPTUM.
The purple group
Purple today is Starting With Month Abbreviations: DECENT, NOVELTY, OCTOPUSSY, SEPTUM. 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 somewhere else, that was the point.
Yesterday's Connections
Connections #1,206, September 29, 2026: Secluded (HIDDEN, REMOTE, SECRET, TUCKED AWAY); River Features (DELTA, DRAINAGE BASIN, MOUTH, STREAM BED); First Words Of Pixar Films (FINDING, INSIDE, MONSTERS, TOY); Phrases Hiding Greek Letters (FREEZE TAG, HOME GAME, MODEL TANK, ORAL PHASE). Yesterday's page ›
Connections is four groups. This one is five words.
One real news sentence a day, twenty to thirty words, something that actually happened. Keep the five words a headline would keep and let the rest go. Here is yesterday's, solved.
At Camden Lock, a 71-year-oldwoman, Beatrice Millar, took off her shoes, jumped in after a drowningman and saved him by holding his head above water.
Five tries. blue is the right word in the right place, orange is one of the five sitting somewhere else, grey is not one of them. The result beats the process, a name or a job beats a place, and the little words never count.