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Connections September 16, 2026: Hints & Answers (#1295)

edited by Wyna Liu.

Recap

The connections for this puzzle included a group of items ending with chemical elements, another group starting with US coins, poets' middle names, and sausages with a letter added.

The sixteen tiles

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

FRANK-N-FURTERLATINCLINKPENNYWISEWADSWORTHNICKELODEONBORATLONG JOHN SILVERST. VINCENTSTEAM IRONWIDENERDIMENSIONQUARTERBACKCARLOSMARIGOLDBARRETT

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
    Chemical suffixes
    Green
    Coin beginnings
    Blue
    Poetic names
    Purple
    Meat additions
  2. What linked each group, described

    Still no titles and no tiles named.

    Yellow group

    These four items all conclude with the name of a chemical element.

    Green group

    These words all start with the name of a US coin.

    Blue group

    These names are commonly found as middle names of famous poets.

    Purple group

    These words can be understood as a type of sausage with a simple modification.

  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. 3 of the sixteen tiles were more than one word.

    Tiles
    16 across 4 groups
    Longest tile
    16 characters
    Shortest tile
    5 characters
    Multi-word tiles
    3
    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, particularly those with common words or phrases. Be cautious with cards like STEAM IRON and PENNYWISE.

  5. The four category titles

    Half the answer.

    Yellow
    ENDING IN METAL ELEMENTS
    Green
    STARTING WITH U.S. COINS
    Blue
    POETS' MIDDLE NAMES
    Purple
    SAUSAGES PLUS A LETTER
  6. One tile from each group

    The anchor most people misplaced, matched to its title.

    Yellow — ENDING IN METAL ELEMENTS
    MARIGOLD
    Green — STARTING WITH U.S. COINS
    QUARTERBACK
    Blue — POETS' MIDDLE NAMES
    WADSWORTH
    Purple — SAUSAGES PLUS A LETTER
    FRANK-N-FURTER
    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

    ENDING IN METAL ELEMENTS

    LATIN, LONG JOHN SILVER, MARIGOLD, STEAM IRON. The yellow group, ENDING IN METAL ELEMENTS, consists of LATIN, LONG JOHN SILVER, MARIGOLD, and STEAM IRON.

  • Green group · 4 tiles

    STARTING WITH U.S. COINS

    DIMENSION, NICKELODEON, PENNYWISE, QUARTERBACK. The green group, STARTING WITH U.S. COINS, consists of DIMENSION, NICKELODEON, PENNYWISE, and QUARTERBACK.

  • Blue group · 4 tiles

    POETS' MIDDLE NAMES

    BARRETT, CARLOS, ST. VINCENT, WADSWORTH. The blue group, POETS' MIDDLE NAMES, consists of BARRETT, CARLOS, ST. VINCENT, and WADSWORTH.

  • Purple group · 4 tiles

    SAUSAGES PLUS A LETTER

    BORAT, CLINK, FRANK-N-FURTER, WIDENER. The purple group, SAUSAGES PLUS A LETTER, consists of BORAT, CLINK, FRANK-N-FURTER, and WIDENER.

This board by the numbers

Puzzle
(#1295) · Wednesday, September 16, 2026
Tiles
16 in a 4 × 4 grid
Groups
4, yellow to purple
Multi-word tiles
3
Longest tile
LONG JOHN SILVER
Mistakes allowed
4 before the board locked

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