TodayHint

Connections September 3, 2026: Hints & Answers (#1278)

edited by Wyna Liu.

Recap

The groups for this puzzle included brief moments, shades of red, toy car brands, and common spreadsheet functions.

The sixteen tiles

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

MAXMATCHBOXMAROONAVERAGEBLINKCARMINESUMFLASHCOUNTHEARTBEATCINNABARTONKAHOT WHEELSVERMILLIONTRICEMICRO MACHINES

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
    Quick glance
    Green
    Color terms
    Blue
    Small cars
    Purple
    Math functions
  2. What linked each group, described

    Still no titles and no tiles named.

    Yellow group

    These words describe very brief moments or glances of time.

    Green group

    These words are names of different reddish hues or shades.

    Blue group

    These are brands of miniature toy vehicles often collected.

    Purple group

    These terms refer to common calculations used in data analysis tools.

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

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

    Which tiles pulled in two directions.

    Some cards could fit into more than one group, especially those related to colors or brief moments, like 'flash' or 'maroon'.

  5. The four category titles

    Half the answer.

    Yellow
    TWO SHAKES OF A LAMB'S TAIL
    Green
    SHADES OF RED
    Blue
    TOY CAR BRANDS
    Purple
    SPREADSHEET FUNCTIONS
  6. One tile from each group

    The anchor most people misplaced, matched to its title.

    Yellow — TWO SHAKES OF A LAMB'S TAIL
    TRICE
    Green — SHADES OF RED
    VERMILLION
    Blue — TOY CAR BRANDS
    TONKA
    Purple — SPREADSHEET FUNCTIONS
    AVERAGE
    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

    TWO SHAKES OF A LAMB'S TAIL

    BLINK, FLASH, HEARTBEAT, TRICE. The yellow group, 'TWO SHAKES OF A LAMB'S TAIL', consists of BLINK, FLASH, HEARTBEAT, TRICE.

  • Green group · 4 tiles

    SHADES OF RED

    CARMINE, CINNABAR, MAROON, VERMILLION. The green group, 'SHADES OF RED', consists of CARMINE, CINNABAR, MAROON, VERMILLION.

  • Blue group · 4 tiles

    TOY CAR BRANDS

    HOT WHEELS, MATCHBOX, MICRO MACHINES, TONKA. The blue group, 'TOY CAR BRANDS', consists of HOT WHEELS, MATCHBOX, MICRO MACHINES, TONKA.

  • Purple group · 4 tiles

    SPREADSHEET FUNCTIONS

    AVERAGE, COUNT, MAX, SUM. The purple group, 'SPREADSHEET FUNCTIONS', consists of AVERAGE, COUNT, MAX, SUM.

This board by the numbers

Puzzle
(#1278) · Thursday, September 3, 2026
Tiles
16 in a 4 × 4 grid
Groups
4, yellow to purple
Multi-word tiles
2
Longest tile
MICRO MACHINES
Mistakes allowed
4 before the board locked

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