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Connections August 1, 2026: Hints & Answers (#1231)

edited by Wyna Liu.

Recap

The groups were well-distributed, with BEDDING being the easiest and STARTING WITH BREAD SHAPES being the hardest.

The sixteen tiles

The sixteen tiles as dealt. Reveal a group below to tint and caption its tiles here.

WALTZLOAFERSHAMBOREREAMBOULEVARDSHEETBALETHROWBUNDLEJORDANROLLS-ROYCEPHOENIXDRILLCOMFORTERCOUNTERSINK

Connections hints, one rung at a time

Six rungs, softest first. The recap above already named the groups, so this ladder is here for anyone replaying the board fresh rather than as a spoiler shield.

  1. Four one-line nudges, one per group

    The softest hint there is.

    Yellow
    Sleep essentials
    Green
    Recent winners
    Blue
    Machine tools
    Purple
    Bread-inspired names
  2. What linked each group, described

    Still no titles and no tiles named.

    Yellow group

    Items you'd find on a bed

    Green group

    Actors who have won Academy Awards since 2010

    Blue group

    Operations performed to create holes

    Purple group

    Things named after types of bread

  3. Board facts

    Counted off the sixteen printed tiles.

    Sixteen tiles, four groups of four, ordered yellow → green → blue → purple from most to least obvious. Every tile was a single word.

    Tiles
    16 across 4 groups
    Longest tile
    11 characters
    Shortest tile
    4 characters
    Multi-word tiles
    0
    Back to the sixteen tiles
  4. The trap on this board

    Which tiles pulled in two directions.

    Some cards could fit into multiple categories, beware of misleading connections, especially with LOAFER and BALE.

  5. The four category titles

    Half the answer.

    Yellow
    BEDDING
    Green
    OSCAR-WINNING ACTORS SINCE 2010
    Blue
    PERFORM SOME HOLE MACHINING OPERATIONS
    Purple
    STARTING WITH BREAD SHAPES
  6. One tile from each group

    The anchor most people misplaced, matched to its title.

    Yellow — BEDDING
    COMFORTER
    Green — OSCAR-WINNING ACTORS SINCE 2010
    WALTZ
    Blue — PERFORM SOME HOLE MACHINING OPERATIONS
    COUNTERSINK
    Purple — STARTING WITH BREAD SHAPES
    BUNDLE
    Open the full groupings

Every Connections group from that board

All four groups, folded. Opening one tints its four tiles above and captions them with the category name.

  • Yellow group · 4 tiles

    BEDDING

    COMFORTER, SHAM, SHEET, THROW. The yellow group, BEDDING, consists of COMFORTER, SHAM, SHEET, and THROW.

  • Green group · 4 tiles

    OSCAR-WINNING ACTORS SINCE 2010

    BALE, JORDAN, PHOENIX, WALTZ. The green group, OSCAR-WINNING ACTORS SINCE 2010, consists of BALE, JORDAN, PHOENIX, and WALTZ.

  • Blue group · 4 tiles

    PERFORM SOME HOLE MACHINING OPERATIONS

    BORE, COUNTERSINK, DRILL, REAM. The blue group, PERFORM SOME HOLE MACHINING OPERATIONS, consists of BORE, COUNTERSINK, DRILL, and REAM.

  • Purple group · 4 tiles

    STARTING WITH BREAD SHAPES

    BOULEVARD, BUNDLE, LOAFER, ROLLS-ROYCE. The purple group, STARTING WITH BREAD SHAPES, consists of BOULEVARD, BUNDLE, LOAFER, and ROLLS-ROYCE.

This board by the numbers

Puzzle
(#1231) · Saturday, August 1, 2026
Tiles
16 in a 4 × 4 grid
Groups
4, yellow to purple
Multi-word tiles
0
Longest tile
COUNTERSINK
Mistakes allowed
4 before the board locked

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