NYT Connections Hints & Answers (#1170) – Today's Puzzle, August 24
Today’s NYT Connections Tip
One category is hiding inside four perfectly ordinary words.
Connections Hint for Each Word Today
Tap any word to see its Connections hint — what it means in today’s puzzle, no spoilers.
SOLE
SOLE Connections Hint
A flat saltwater fish — not the bottom of a shoe or the adjective meaning only.
DESERVE
DESERVE Connections Hint
Looks like an ordinary English verb meaning to have earned something — but read it differently and a letter plus a tennis term appears inside it.
MAIN
MAIN Connections Hint
The primary or most important one — a genuine synonym for principal, not the river or the state.
EYELET
EYELET Connections Hint
A small hole reinforced with a ring, used in fabric or shoes — but the puzzle uses a hidden letter-plus-tennis-term reading, not the sewing meaning.
A flat saltwater fish — not the bottom of a shoe or the adjective meaning only.
HEEL
HEEL Connections Hint
In pro wrestling, the villain of the story — the bad guy the crowd is supposed to boo, not the back of your foot.
PRIME
PRIME Connections Hint
First in importance or quality — a true synonym for principal, as in prime minister or prime concern.
EX-LOVE
EX-LOVE Connections Hint
Looks like a phrase for a former romantic partner — but the puzzle reads it as a letter name followed by a tennis scoring term.
ARCH
ARCH Connections Hint
Most important or chief — as in arch-rival or arch-enemy, meaning the primary or supreme one. Not the foot structure.
MULLET
MULLET Connections Hint
A real fish — a grey, schooling saltwater fish — not just the haircut.
KAYFABE
KAYFABE Connections Hint
The pro-wrestling practice of presenting scripted events as real — keeping the fictional storyline intact in public.
BESET
BESET Connections Hint
Looks like a common English verb meaning to trouble or surround — but the puzzle reads it as a letter name followed by a tennis scoring term.
PIKE
PIKE Connections Hint
A large freshwater predatory fish — also a weapon and a road, but here it is the fish.
FACE
FACE Connections Hint
In pro wrestling, the hero of the story — the good guy the crowd cheers for, opposite of heel.
TANG
TANG Connections Hint
A saltwater fish popular in aquariums, famously including the blue tang — not the flavour or the drink powder.
CHIEF
CHIEF Connections Hint
The most important person or thing — a direct synonym for principal, as in chief concern or chief editor.
JOBBER
JOBBER Connections Hint
In pro wrestling, a performer whose role is to lose matches in order to make other wrestlers look stronger.
Today’s NYT Connections Hints for All Four Categories
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Yellow Connections Hint Today
Four creatures you might find on a seafood menu. Think: aquarium, fishing rod, market
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Green Connections Hint Today
All mean foremost, leading, or most important. Think: synonyms for number one
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Blue Connections Hint Today
Terms used inside a specific scripted combat sport. Think: ring, storyline, crowd reaction
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Purple Connections Hint Today
Each word sounds like a letter name plus a tennis score. Think: spell it out loud
Traps & Misdirects Hints for Today’s Connections Puzzle
Today’s Connections puzzle includes words intentionally placed to misdirect you into wrong groups. These traps and misdirects hints reveal which words are designed to mislead, so you don’t burn your 4 allowed mistakes on deliberate decoys.
HEEL is the back of your foot, FACE is the front of your head, and SOLE is the bottom of your shoe — grouping them as parts of the foot or body feels completely natural. That body-part reading is a dead end here. Each of these words has a meaning inside a specific performance-based sport that the puzzle is actually using.
ARCH, HEEL, and SOLE are all anatomical parts of the foot — the arch supports the middle, the heel anchors the back, the sole covers the bottom. The foot connection is real but irrelevant here. These three words belong to different categories in this puzzle.
PRIME, CHIEF, MAIN, and ARCH all feel like synonyms for top-ranking or most important — and three of them actually are in the same group. But one of these four belongs somewhere else entirely, so do not lock all four in together before checking each word individually.
MULLET is a famously bad haircut, TANG is a flavour or a powdered drink, and PIKE is a weapon or a road — none of those readings are what is happening here. All three are also fish, and that is the connection the puzzle uses.
Today’s NYT Connections Answers
Today’s NYT Connections Answers Explained
FISH
MULLET, PIKE, SOLE, and TANG are all real fish — each word has a more famous non-fish meaning that acts as camouflage, but all four are genuine species.
- MULLET
- A grey schooling fish found in coastal waters worldwide — far less famous than the haircut, which is the decoy.
- PIKE
- A large aggressive freshwater predatory fish with a long snout — also a weapon and a type of road, both red herrings.
- SOLE
- A flat saltwater fish prized in cooking — Dover sole is the classic example — disguised here by its more common meanings.
- TANG
- A saltwater fish common in coral reefs and home aquariums — the blue tang from Finding Nemo is the most recognisable example.
PRINCIPAL
ARCH, CHIEF, MAIN, and PRIME all mean foremost or most important — each is a genuine synonym for principal, though each also carries other common meanings that distract.
- ARCH
- Used as an adjective meaning supreme or chief — an arch-rival is the primary rival, an arch-villain is the foremost villain.
- CHIEF
- The most important or leading one — chief concern, chief editor, chief reason — a direct synonym for principal.
- MAIN
- The primary or most significant one — the main point, the main event — straightforward synonym for principal.
- PRIME
- First in importance or quality — prime minister literally means first minister, and prime concern means the leading concern.
PRO-WRESTLING LINGO
FACE, HEEL, JOBBER, and KAYFABE are all terms from the internal vocabulary of professional wrestling — a world with its own language for roles, characters, and the fiction that holds it together.
- FACE
- Short for babyface — the hero of a wrestling storyline, the performer the crowd is meant to cheer and root for.
- HEEL
- The villain of a wrestling storyline — the performer who plays the bad guy and draws the crowd's boos, opposite of face.
- JOBBER
- A wrestler whose scripted role is to lose matches, making their opponent look dominant and credible to the audience.
- KAYFABE
- The unwritten rule in professional wrestling that performers maintain the fiction of the sport being real — in public, characters stay in character.
LETTER HOMOPHONE PLUS TENNIS TERM
BESET, DESERVE, EX-LOVE, and EYELET each sound like a letter of the alphabet followed by a tennis scoring term — the trick is to say each word aloud and listen for the two parts.
- BESET
- Say it aloud: B + SET — the letter B followed by SET, which is a unit of scoring in tennis.
- DESERVE
- Say it aloud: D + SERVE — the letter D followed by SERVE, the shot that starts each tennis point.
- EX-LOVE
- Say it aloud: X + LOVE — the letter X followed by LOVE, the tennis term for a score of zero.
- EYELET
- Say it aloud: I + LET — the letter I followed by LET, the tennis term for a serve that clips the net and must be replayed.
What Makes Today’s NYT Connections Puzzle Tricky?
Words like HEEL, FACE, SOLE, and ARCH look like body parts, MULLET reads as a haircut, PRIME and CHIEF feel like leadership words, and KAYFABE sits there looking like nothing you have ever seen.
The editor's trick is that several words carry a completely different meaning in a specific subculture — and the puzzle uses that hidden meaning, not the obvious one.
This skews hard — one group is approachable, one requires lateral thinking, and the purple category will stop most players cold unless they know the trick.
How to Use Connections Hints
Everyone playing NYT Connections puzzle gets stuck at a different point. Some players can’t figure out a single word. Others have three groups solved and can’t find the fourth. Where you are stuck determines which connection hint you need. So if you are stuck in today’s puzzle, find your situation in the sections below, use the recommended Connections hint, and continue solving. You don’t need to reveal more than what gets you past the point where you are stuck.
A word in the puzzle has an unfamiliar meaning
Some words in today’s NYT Connections puzzle are uncommon. Connections editor Wyna Liu often uses words with specific or less familiar meanings, particularly in the green, blue, and purple categories. If you don’t know what a word means, you cannot reliably place it in a group.
Use the Word Hint. It tells you what the word means in the context of today’s puzzle. Tap any word directly on the board above to see its hint. Each word opens a small card with its puzzle-specific connections hint.
No groups are forming after reading all sixteen words
The connection between words is often not obvious from their meanings alone — categories are built around themes that require a specific angle to see. These category-level clues are the most useful hints for connections that aren’t coming together from word meanings alone.
Use the Category Hint. It points you toward the theme of a category without revealing the category name or which words belong to it. In the All Hints section, tap “Yellow Category Hint” first. Read it before revealing anything else. Yellow is the easiest category by design.
You have a possible group but aren’t ready to guess
You think four words belong together but you’re not confident enough to guess. If you’re unsure, don’t guess yet — a wrong guess costs you one of your four mistakes.
Use the Category Name. It reveals the exact name of the category without showing you which words belong to it. If your group belongs to that category, guess with confidence. If it doesn’t, you’ve saved a mistake. In the All Hints section, tap “Yellow Category Name” — or whichever colour you are testing. The name appears immediately below the hint.
One word seems to fit more than one group
You have built a group of four words but one word in it could also fit somewhere else. NYT Connections editor Wyna Liu deliberately places misleading words on the board that seem to fit multiple categories. These are the most common source of wrong guesses in today’s connections puzzle.
Use the Traps and Misdirects Hints. It identifies the specific misleading words in today’s puzzle and explains why they don’t belong where you think they do. Go to the Traps and Misdirects section and look for the word that is bothering you.
You know the category but can’t find all four words
You have identified the theme of a category but can’t find all four words that belong to it.
Use the Word Reveal. It uncovers one masked word at a time without revealing the full group. This is the most precise connection hint available — it gives you exactly one word without touching the rest of the puzzle. In the All Hints section, find the colour category you have identified. Tap “Category Words” to open the reveal panel, then tap “Reveal word 1” — one word at a time until your group is complete.
One mistake left with two groups unsolved
You have one mistake remaining and two groups unsolved. If you guess wrong here, the game ends and NYT reveals all the answers automatically.
Do not guess yet. Use the Category Name for both remaining groups first. If the category names still don’t resolve it, use the Word Reveal to uncover one or two words causing the split. In the All Hints section, tap the Category Name for both remaining colours. If that is still not enough, tap “Category Words” and reveal one word at a time until the correct split is clear.
You want today’s answers without solving the puzzle
Use the Answers section. It shows all four category names and the four words that belong to each one. Go to the Answers section.
The puzzle is over but a category still doesn’t make sense
You can see the four groups and their words but the connection between them isn’t clear.
Use the Answer Explanation. It tells you exactly what connects the words in each category and why each individual word belongs there. This is particularly useful for the purple category, where the connection is almost never straightforward. Go to the Answer Explanation section.
