NYT Connections Answers: The New York Times’ puzzle Connections has once again left players scratching their heads. On Tuesday, August 26, puzzle #806 dropped, and as always, four groups of words needed to be sorted into their hidden themes. But if you’re stuck, you’re not alone—the dreaded purple category proved especially tricky.
For the uninitiated, Connections challenges players to link 16 words into four sets of four, each set tied together by a theme. Miss four times and the game ends. The themes are colour-coded by difficulty: Yellow (easy), Green (moderate), Blue (challenging), and Purple (the hardest of them all).
Today’s Connections Puzzle Words
Here’s the list of words that needed to be grouped in today’s puzzle: Toad, Ride, Tattoo, Bar, Mole, Foot, Heel, Badger, Rat, Harry, Step, Scar, Creep, Piercing, Bug, Skunk.
As always, the puzzle came with a mix of clear links and clever red herrings, making it easy to get misled.
NYT Connections Hints
If you were trying to solve the puzzle without peeking at the answers, here were some hints that could help:
- Yellow: “They make it easier to recognise a person.”
- Green: “This one is all about unlikeable people.”
- Blue: “Such an… annoying theme.”
- Purple: “Find a single word to paste behind each group member.”
An extra nudge also reminded players that each group contained at least one four-letter word.
NYT Connections Answers Today
After plenty of guesswork and head-scratching, here are the correct groups for August 26:
- Yellow – Distinguishing Characteristics: Mole, Piercing, Scar, Tattoo
- Green – A Real Jerk: Creep, Heel, Rat, Skunk
- Blue – Pester: Badger, Bug, Harry, Ride
- Purple – Words Before “Stool”: Bar, Foot, Step, Toad
The puzzle may be solved for the day, but as any fan of Connections knows, tomorrow will bring a brand new challenge, and probably another purple set designed to stump even the sharpest players.

