TodayHint

Connections October 15, 2026: Hints & Answers (#1326)

edited by Wyna Liu.

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 WAYS TO PRESERVE FOOD; THINGS YOU CAN SCORE IN SPORTS; LOWEST PART; LOW LANDFORMS WITH A LETTER CHANGED. In difficulty order the answers were WAYS TO PRESERVE FOOD (CURE, DRY, PICKLE, SMOKE); THINGS YOU CAN SCORE IN SPORTS (BASKET, GOAL, RUN, TOUCHDOWN); LOWEST PART (BASE, BOTTOM, FOOT, FOUNDATION); LOW LANDFORMS WITH A LETTER CHANGED (CANNON, FORGE, RACINE, VOLLEY). 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.

SMOKEBASKETDRYFOOTVOLLEYCANNONRUNPICKLEBASEGOALFORGEFOUNDATIONCURERACINEBOTTOMTOUCHDOWN

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
    Easiest set
    Green
    Second set
    Blue
    Third set
    Purple
    Trickiest set
  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.

  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
    10 characters
    Shortest tile
    3 characters
    Multi-word tiles
    0
    Back to the sixteen tiles
  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.

  5. The four category titles

    Half the answer.

    Yellow
    WAYS TO PRESERVE FOOD
    Green
    THINGS YOU CAN SCORE IN SPORTS
    Blue
    LOWEST PART
    Purple
    LOW LANDFORMS WITH A LETTER CHANGED
  6. One tile from each group

    The anchor most people misplaced, matched to its title.

    Yellow — WAYS TO PRESERVE FOOD
    PICKLE
    Green — THINGS YOU CAN SCORE IN SPORTS
    TOUCHDOWN
    Blue — LOWEST PART
    FOUNDATION
    Purple — LOW LANDFORMS WITH A LETTER CHANGED
    CANNON
    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

    WAYS TO PRESERVE FOOD

    CURE, DRY, PICKLE, SMOKE. WAYS TO PRESERVE FOOD: CURE, DRY, PICKLE, SMOKE.

  • Green group · 4 tiles

    THINGS YOU CAN SCORE IN SPORTS

    BASKET, GOAL, RUN, TOUCHDOWN. THINGS YOU CAN SCORE IN SPORTS: BASKET, GOAL, RUN, TOUCHDOWN.

  • Blue group · 4 tiles

    LOWEST PART

    BASE, BOTTOM, FOOT, FOUNDATION. LOWEST PART: BASE, BOTTOM, FOOT, FOUNDATION.

  • Purple group · 4 tiles

    LOW LANDFORMS WITH A LETTER CHANGED

    CANNON, FORGE, RACINE, VOLLEY. LOW LANDFORMS WITH A LETTER CHANGED: CANNON, FORGE, RACINE, VOLLEY.

This board by the numbers

Puzzle
(#1326) · Thursday, October 15, 2026
Tiles
16 in a 4 × 4 grid
Groups
4, yellow to purple
Multi-word tiles
0
Longest tile
FOUNDATION
Mistakes allowed
4 before the board locked

More Connections

See the live Connections hints and answers page for the current board, or browse every archived Connections date by month.

Try another puzzle