By Akash Wadhwani. Checked against two sources, updated 4:00 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 GREAT SCOTT.
Green: one of the four is SWING SET.
Blue: one of the four is DOC BROWN.
Purple: one of the four is ROCKY ROAD.
Hint 2: the four categories
Yellow: "gadzooks!".
Green: Starting With Variations.
Blue: Ending In Ways To Cook Things.
Purple: Starting With Best Picture Oscar Winners.
GREAT SCOTTROCKY ROADYOU'RE TOASTFLUX CAPACITORMOONLIGHT SONATAJIMINY CRICKETMARTY MCFLYCOMEDY ROASTDOC BROWNCHANGE PURSEARCTIC CHARGOOD HEAVENSSHIFT DRESSGLADIATOR SANDALSHOLY SMOKESSWING SET
Today's Connections groups, #1,250
Yellow, "gadzooks!": GOOD HEAVENS, GREAT SCOTT, HOLY SMOKES, JIMINY CRICKET.
Blue, Ending In Ways To Cook Things: ARCTIC CHAR, COMEDY ROAST, DOC BROWN, YOU'RE TOAST.
Purple, Starting With Best Picture Oscar Winners: GLADIATOR SANDALS, MARTY MCFLY, MOONLIGHT SONATA, ROCKY ROAD.
The purple group
Purple today is Starting With Best Picture Oscar Winners: GLADIATOR SANDALS, MARTY MCFLY, MOONLIGHT SONATA, ROCKY ROAD. 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 #1,249, November 11, 2026: Kinds Of Medicine (FOLK, HERBAL, HOLISTIC, TRADITIONAL); Parts Of A Golf Course (GREEN, ROUGH, SAND TRAP, TEE BOX); Things Filled With Air (AIR MATTRESS, BUBBLE, TIRE, WHOOPIE CUSHION); Ending In Palindromes (AFTERNOON, PATOOT, RHEOSTATS, SHREDDER). 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.