NYT Connections #1168 for August 22, 2026 mixes carpentry tools, melons, garden hose settings and a tricky pop-culture “Girls” category.
NYT Connections hints for August 22
- Yellow: Think about tools you might find in a woodworking shop.
- Green: These words can describe different varieties or types of a familiar fruit.
- Blue: Think about the different spray patterns available when watering a garden.
- Purple: Put the same word after each answer to create four familiar pop-culture names.
Carpentry clue: Think about tools used to cut, shape or work with wood. Some are used for striking or cutting, while another is used to smooth and shape a wooden surface.
Melon clue: Add “melon” to each answer. The resulting words refer to recognized kinds or names of melons.
Garden hose clue: Imagine adjusting the nozzle on a garden hose. These words describe different ways the water can be sprayed.
Pop-culture clue: Add “Girls” after each answer. The resulting names should be familiar from television, movies or music.
Today’s NYT Connections answers
Reveal the Yellow Group
Category: Carpentry tools
Answers: CHISEL, HAMMER, PLANE, SAW
All four answers are tools associated with carpentry and woodworking. A chisel is used to cut or carve material, a hammer drives nails and delivers force, a plane shapes and smooths wood, and a saw is used for cutting.
Reveal the Green Group
Category: Kinds of melon
Answers: BITTER, MUSK, WATER, WINTER
Each answer forms the name of a type of melon when paired with “melon.” The combinations are bitter melon, muskmelon, watermelon and winter melon. Recognizing the shared fruit connection makes this group much easier to separate from the remaining words.
Reveal the Blue Group
Category: Garden hose settings
Answers: CONE, JET, MIST, SHOWER
These four words describe common spray patterns or settings on garden hose nozzles. Cone spreads water across a wider area, jet produces a concentrated stream, mist creates a fine spray, and shower provides a gentler rain-like flow.
Reveal the Purple Group
Category: ____ Girls of pop culture
Answers: GILMORE, GOLDEN, MEAN, SPICE
Each answer becomes a familiar pop-culture name when followed by “Girls.” The four combinations are Gilmore Girls, Golden Girls, Mean Girls and Spice Girls. The group spans television, film and music, which helps disguise the shared connection.
Today’s solving lesson: Connections #1168 rewards players who look for words that complete familiar names and compound terms. BITTER, MUSK, WATER and WINTER may not immediately seem connected until “melon” is added, while GILMORE, GOLDEN, MEAN and SPICE become much clearer once “Girls” is identified as their shared ending. If several words seem loosely related, testing a common word before or after them can expose the intended category.
Players can attempt the official daily puzzle and check their results on the New York Times Connections page.
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