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 NOT BAD.
Green: one of the four is YOGA.
Blue: one of the four is TOY.
Purple: one of the four is JAWN.
Hint 2: the four categories
Yellow: Responses To "how Are You?".
Green: Kinds Of Mats.
Blue: Akc Dog Breed Groups.
Purple: Horror Movies With Last Letter Changed.
WELCOMEHALLOWEEKCHILLINGTOYYOGAJAWNSPORTINGPRAYERPSYCHSHOUNDMANAGINGWRESTLINGSAME OLDHOSTEDHERDINGNOT BAD
Today's Connections groups, #1,233
Yellow, Responses To "how Are You?": CHILLING, MANAGING, NOT BAD, SAME OLD.
Green, Kinds Of Mats: PRAYER, WELCOME, WRESTLING, YOGA.
Blue, Akc Dog Breed Groups: HERDING, HOUND, SPORTING, TOY.
Purple, Horror Movies With Last Letter Changed: HALLOWEEK, HOSTED, JAWN, PSYCHS.
The purple group
Purple today is Horror Movies With Last Letter Changed: HALLOWEEK, HOSTED, JAWN, PSYCHS. 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 #1,232, October 25, 2026: Steal (BOOST, PALM, POCKET, SWIPE); Pasta Shapes (BOW TIE, ELBOW, SHELL, WAGON WHEEL); Fictional Toms (RIPLEY, SAWYER, SWIFT, THUMB); Things That Can Be Snapped (FINGERS, FOOTBALL, GLOW STICK, RUBBER BAND). 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.