NYT Connections #1161 Guide: Categories, Clues, and Answers for Aug. 15
NYT Connections fans looking for Saturday’s puzzle have a fresh set of words to sort into four categories, with the day’s solution landing on a mix of “exhausted,” “segment,” unit-based endings, and a trickier purple theme built around synonyms for “follow” (with a secrecy twist). The game number for today is #1161.
NYT Connections today (Game #1161): the starting grid
These are the 16 entries you can group into four sets of four:
- GRINCH
- BEANSTALK
- STAGE
- LANYARD
- HIGHTAIL
- LEG
- SOUNDTRACK
- HOTFOOT
- BEAT
- STRETCH
- FRIED
- CHAMOMILE
- SPENT
- EYESHADOW
- PHASE
- WORN OUT
How the categories break down
Today’s hints point to four different group ideas:
- Yellow: Shattered
- Green: A part of something bigger
- Blue: Imperial segments
- Purple: Creepy segments
NYT Connections today (Game #1161): full answers
Here are the four theme solutions for #1161:
- Yellow: EXHAUSTED — BEAT, FRIED, SPENT, WORN OUT
- Green: SEGMENT — LEG, PHASE, STAGE, STRETCH
- Blue: ENDING IN UNITS OF LENGTH — CHAMOMILE, GRINCH, HOTFOOT, LANYARD
- Purple: ENDING IN SYNONYMS FOR FOLLOW SECRETLY — BEANSTALK, EYESHADOW, HIGHTAIL, SOUNDTRACK
Yesterday’s recap (Friday, August 14, 2026 — Game #1160)
If you’re catching up, here are the completed groups from the previous puzzle:
- Yellow: BLACK-AND-YELLOW — BUMBLEBEE, CAUTION TAPE, CHARLIE BROWN, WOLVERINE
- Green: PLACES WHERE EVERYONE THINKS THE SAME WAYS — BUBBLE, ECHO CHAMBER, HIVEMIND, SILO
- Blue: COMIC BOOK ARTIST’S TOOLS — BRISTOL BOARD, DIP PEN, INDIA INK, STRAIGHTEDGE
- Purple: TRIANGLE LOGOS — BASS ALE, CITGO, DELTA AIRLINES, GOOGLE DRIVE
Quick refresher: what Connections is asking you to do
Connections tasks you with sorting items into four groups of four, with difficulty tiers typically color-coded: green is easiest, yellow is tougher, blue is usually harder, and purple is generally the most difficult. You can still make a limited number of mistakes, and the final category can often be solved by elimination.
