Today’s NYT Connections puzzle for August 19, 2026 (#1165) mixes easy word associations with tricky sports and animated-movie wordplay.
Today’s NYT Connections puzzle has some clever wordplay, especially in the sports group and the set involving CGI-animated films. The yellow category is more straightforward: BREEZE, CINCH, PICNIC and SNAP are all associated with something being easy, while the purple group gets trickier with ANTS, COCOA, RHEO and SEOUL sounding like the animated movie titles Antz, Coco, Rio and Soul.
NYT Connections hints for August 19
- Yellow: Think of casual expressions you might use when something is extremely easy to accomplish.
- Green: These words can all describe ways of keeping something hidden or preventing it from being clearly seen.
- Blue: Add the same four-letter word after each answer and you will get the names of familiar sports.
- Purple: Say each word aloud. What you hear may remind you of the title of a computer-animated movie.
Easy clue: Look for four words that can be used informally to describe something requiring very little effort. If a task is simple, you might call it one of these.
Conceal clue: These answers share the idea of covering, hiding or making something less visible. Consider both literal and figurative uses of each word.
Sports clue: The answers are not sports by themselves. Put “ball” after each one and four recognizable sport names appear.
Animated movie clue: Focus on pronunciation rather than spelling. Each answer sounds like the title of a CGI-animated film, even though the written word is different.
Today’s NYT Connections answers
Reveal the Yellow Group
Category: Piece of cake
Answers: BREEZE, CINCH, PICNIC, SNAP
All four answers can convey the idea that something is easy. A simple task can be called a breeze or a cinch, while snap is another informal way of describing something easily done. Picnic fits through the familiar idea of an experience being easy or pleasant rather than difficult.
Reveal the Green Group
Category: Conceal
Answers: BLANKET, HIDE, MASK, OBSCURE
Each answer can relate to concealing something. To hide or mask something is to keep it from being noticed, while obscure can mean making something difficult to see or understand. Blanket can also mean covering something completely.
Reveal the Blue Group
Category: Words before “ball” in sport names
Answers: BASE, BASKET, FOOT, PICKLE
Adding “ball” to each answer produces the name of a sport: baseball, basketball, football and pickleball. The challenge is recognizing the shared ending rather than trying to connect the four words on their own.
Reveal the Purple Group
Category: Homophones of CGI-animated films
Answers: ANTS, COCOA, RHEO, SEOUL
This group depends entirely on how the answers sound. Ants sounds like Antz, cocoa points to Coco, rheo sounds like Rio, and Seoul sounds like Soul. All four corresponding titles are CGI-animated films.
Today’s solving lesson: The August 19 puzzle rewards players who are willing to switch between meanings, word combinations and sounds. The first groups can be solved through familiar expressions and definitions, but the purple category changes the rules by relying on homophones. Saying suspicious-looking words aloud can sometimes reveal a Connections category that is difficult to spot on the page.
Players can attempt the official daily puzzle and check their results on the New York Times Connections page.
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