Connections August 19, 2026: Hints & Answers (#1201)
The written hints below were assembled automatically from the board data rather than composed by an editor — accurate, just plainer than usual.
Recap
The 4 sets were PIECE OF CAKE; CONCEAL; WORDS BEFORE "BALL" IN SPORT NAMES; HOMOPHONES OF CGI-ANIMATED FILMS. In difficulty order the answers were PIECE OF CAKE (BREEZE, CINCH, PICNIC, SNAP); CONCEAL (BLANKET, HIDE, MASK, OBSCURE); WORDS BEFORE "BALL" IN SPORT NAMES (BASE, BASKET, FOOT, PICKLE); HOMOPHONES OF CGI-ANIMATED FILMS (ANTS, COCOA, RHEO, SEOUL). This recap was assembled automatically from the puzzle data rather than written by an editor.
The sixteen tiles
The sixteen tiles as dealt. Reveal a group below to tint and caption its tiles here.
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.
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Hint 1: Four one-line nudges, one per group
The softest hint there is.
- Yellow
- Easiest set
- Green
- Second set
- Blue
- Third set
- Purple
- Trickiest set
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Hint 2: What linked each group, described
Still no titles and no tiles named.
Yellow group
Auto-generated hint: this is the first of 4 sets by difficulty, and its 4 tiles share one link that is not spelled out here.
Green group
Auto-generated hint: this is the second of 4 sets by difficulty, and its 4 tiles share one link that is not spelled out here.
Blue group
Auto-generated hint: this is the third of 4 sets by difficulty, and its 4 tiles share one link that is not spelled out here.
Purple group
Auto-generated hint: this is the fourth of 4 sets by difficulty, and its 4 tiles share one link that is not spelled out here.
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Hint 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
- 7 characters
- Shortest tile
- 4 characters
- Multi-word tiles
- 0
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Hint 4: The trap on this board
Which tiles pulled in two directions.
Auto-generated hint: all 16 tiles are printed above and exactly 4 of them belong to each of the 4 sets. Several tiles read naturally in more than one of them, which is where most attempts go wrong. Settle the one you are most confident about first, then read the remaining tiles again before you commit to anything else.
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Hint 5: The four category titles
Half the answer.
- Yellow
- PIECE OF CAKE
- Green
- CONCEAL
- Blue
- WORDS BEFORE "BALL" IN SPORT NAMES
- Purple
- HOMOPHONES OF CGI-ANIMATED FILMS
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Hint 6: One tile from each group
The anchor most people misplaced, matched to its title.
- Yellow — PIECE OF CAKE
- BREEZE
- Green — CONCEAL
- BLANKET
- Blue — WORDS BEFORE "BALL" IN SPORT NAMES
- BASKET
- Purple — HOMOPHONES OF CGI-ANIMATED FILMS
- COCOA
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
PIECE OF CAKE
BREEZE, CINCH, PICNIC, SNAP. PIECE OF CAKE: BREEZE, CINCH, PICNIC, SNAP.
Green group · 4 tiles
CONCEAL
BLANKET, HIDE, MASK, OBSCURE. CONCEAL: BLANKET, HIDE, MASK, OBSCURE.
Blue group · 4 tiles
WORDS BEFORE "BALL" IN SPORT NAMES
BASE, BASKET, FOOT, PICKLE. WORDS BEFORE "BALL" IN SPORT NAMES: BASE, BASKET, FOOT, PICKLE.
Purple group · 4 tiles
HOMOPHONES OF CGI-ANIMATED FILMS
ANTS, COCOA, RHEO, SEOUL. HOMOPHONES OF CGI-ANIMATED FILMS: ANTS, COCOA, RHEO, SEOUL.
This board by the numbers
- Puzzle
- (#1201) · Wednesday, August 19, 2026
- Tiles
- 16 in a 4 × 4 grid
- Groups
- 4, yellow to purple
- Multi-word tiles
- 0
- Longest tile
- BLANKET
- Mistakes allowed
- 4 before the board locked
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