The New York Times Connections puzzle for Wednesday, August 19, 2026, presents a challenge that requires careful word association. For those seeking assistance, hints and answers are available to help solve the daily grid.
The puzzle offers a series of clues to guide players. The yellow category hint is "Like taking candy from a baby," suggesting a theme of ease. The green hint, "Out of sight out of mind," points to words related to concealment. For the blue category, the hint is "Different sports, same sequel," indicating a connection to sports terminology. Finally, the purple hint, "They sound animated, don't they?" hints at words with phonetic similarities to animated film titles.
Additional guidance is provided through extra hints. One suggests that reading words aloud might be beneficial, particularly for one group. Another points out that most groups, excluding purple, contain at least one word with the letter 'B'.
Revealing one word from each category as a further clue, players can find "Breeze" for yellow, "Obscure" for green, "Base" for blue, and "Cocoa" for purple.
For those who wish to see the complete groupings, the four themes for the August 19th puzzle are: "Piece of Cake" (Yellow), "Conceal" (Green), "Words Before "Ball" in Sport Names" (Blue), and "Homophones of CGI-Animated Films" (Purple).
Each theme links four distinct words. The "Piece of Cake" group includes Breeze, Cinch, Picnic, and Snap. The "Conceal" group comprises Blanket, Hide, Mask, and Obscure. For "Words Before "Ball" in Sport Names," the words are Base, Basket, Foot, and Pickle. Lastly, the "Homophones of CGI-Animated Films" group consists of Ants, Cocoa, Rheo, and Seoul.
The purple group, "Homophones of CGI-Animated Films," is noted as being particularly challenging. A key strategy for difficult Connections puzzles is to pronounce the words aloud, as the sound can often reveal hidden connections.
A new Connections puzzle is released daily at midnight, offering a fresh challenge each day.