TodayHint

Connections August 2, 2026: Hints & Answers (#1229)

edited by Wyna Liu.

Recap

The puzzle required grouping 16 tiles into four categories, including common conversational phrases, prepositional phrases, special settings, and airport codes.

The sixteen tiles

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

LIKEAIRPLANEVIAFLAXÀ LASOBYDARKPERLORDWELLASEATHROUGHBEASTOLGAACTUALLY

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
    Conversational pause
    Green
    Prepositional phrase
    Blue
    Special setting
    Purple
    Coded letters
  2. What linked each group, described

    Still no titles and no tiles named.

    Yellow group

    Words often used in speech to fill a pause or hesitate

    Green group

    Phrases used to indicate a method or agent in a sentence structure

    Blue group

    Phrases used to describe a specific operational state or condition

    Purple group

    Airport identifiers combined with their first letter in a specific format

  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. 1 of the sixteen tile was more than one word.

    Tiles
    16 across 4 groups
    Longest tile
    8 characters
    Shortest tile
    2 characters
    Multi-word tiles
    1
    Back to the sixteen tiles
  4. The trap on this board

    Which tiles pulled in two directions.

    Some cards could fit into multiple categories at first glance, be cautious with cards like SO, VIA, and DARK.

  5. The four category titles

    Half the answer.

    Yellow
    FILLER WORDS
    Green
    BY MEANS OF
    Blue
    ___ MODE
    Purple
    U.S. AIRPORT CODES PLUS STARTING LETTER
  6. One tile from each group

    The anchor most people misplaced, matched to its title.

    Yellow — FILLER WORDS
    ACTUALLY
    Green — BY MEANS OF
    THROUGH
    Blue — ___ MODE
    DARK
    Purple — U.S. AIRPORT CODES PLUS STARTING LETTER
    OLGA
    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

    FILLER WORDS

    ACTUALLY, LIKE, SO, WELL. The yellow group, FILLER WORDS, consists of ACTUALLY, LIKE, SO, WELL.

  • Green group · 4 tiles

    BY MEANS OF

    BY, PER, THROUGH, VIA. The green group, BY MEANS OF, consists of BY, PER, THROUGH, VIA.

  • Blue group · 4 tiles

    ___ MODE

    AIRPLANE, BEAST, DARK, À LA. The blue group, ___ MODE, consists of AIRPLANE, BEAST, DARK, À LA.

  • Purple group · 4 tiles

    U.S. AIRPORT CODES PLUS STARTING LETTER

    ASEA, FLAX, LORD, OLGA. The purple group, U.S. AIRPORT CODES PLUS STARTING LETTER, consists of ASEA, FLAX, LORD, OLGA.

This board by the numbers

Puzzle
(#1229) · Sunday, August 2, 2026
Tiles
16 in a 4 × 4 grid
Groups
4, yellow to purple
Multi-word tiles
1
Longest tile
ACTUALLY
Mistakes allowed
4 before the board locked

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