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Connections #1,221

October 14, 2026

By Akash Wadhwani. Checked against two sources, updated 5:00 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 TRACE.
  • Green: one of the four is SERVE.
  • Blue: one of the four is HULK.
  • Purple: one of the four is FEED.
Hint 2: the four categories
  • Yellow: Hint.
  • Green: Tennis Shots.
  • Blue: Superheroes, With "the".
  • Purple: Starting With "fee, Fi, Fo, Fum".
FEEDTHINGSERVESUGGESTIONFIERYFLICKERFLASHFOMENTSMASHHULKTRACEFUMBLESLICEWHIFFVOLLEYPUNISHER

Today's Connections groups, #1,221

  • Yellow, Hint: FLICKER, SUGGESTION, TRACE, WHIFF.
  • Green, Tennis Shots: SERVE, SLICE, SMASH, VOLLEY.
  • Blue, Superheroes, With "the": FLASH, HULK, PUNISHER, THING.
  • Purple, Starting With "fee, Fi, Fo, Fum": FEED, FIERY, FOMENT, FUMBLE.

The purple group

Purple today is Starting With "fee, Fi, Fo, Fum": FEED, FIERY, FOMENT, FUMBLE. 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 #1,220, October 13, 2026: Discernment (EYE, FLAIR, SENSE, TASTE); Fasten (HITCH, LASH, TETHER, TIE); Sports Championship Prizes (BELT, CUP, JACKET, RING); Loose ___ (CANNON, CHANGE, ENDS, LIPS). 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-old woman, Beatrice Millar, took off her shoes, jumped in after a drowning man 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.

How you finish decides which sticker you keep.

Got it in oneClean copyFirst editionSo closeSince day one
Play today's sentence ›