Today’s NYT Connections puzzle #1153 for Friday, August 7, 2026, mixes candle components, cold-related items, elevator parts and a wordplay category built from hidden animal terms.
The biggest distractions are BUCKYBALL, JACKPOT, RAMBO and TOMATILLO. The four words appear unrelated by meaning, but their beginnings reveal the connection.
NYT Connections hints for August 7
- Yellow: Parts and ingredients associated with a candle.
- Green: Things strongly associated with low temperatures.
- Blue: Components used in an elevator system.
- Purple: Look closely at the beginning of each word rather than its full meaning.
Main trap: The purple group is based on word construction, so trying to connect the full answers by meaning will not get very far.
Candle clue: Think about the container, fuel, burning element and scent used in a typical candle.
Cold clue: SNOW and REFRIGERATOR are strong anchors. The remaining two answers also depend on very low temperatures.
Elevator clue: Focus on the parts that let passengers select floors and allow the elevator car to move through the building.
Wordplay clue: The opening section of each purple answer is also a familiar term for a male animal.
Today’s NYT Connections answers
Reveal the Yellow Group
Category: Components of a candle
Answers: FRAGRANCE, JAR, WAX, WICK
Each answer is associated with a candle. Wax provides the fuel, the wick carries the flame, a jar can hold the candle and fragrance gives scented candles their aroma.
Reveal the Green Group
Category: Cold things
Answers: LIQUID NITROGEN, REFRIGERATOR, SNOW, SUNDAE
All four answers are connected with cold temperatures. Liquid nitrogen is extremely cold, refrigerators chill food, snow forms in freezing conditions and a sundae is built around ice cream.
Reveal the Blue Group
Category: Parts of an elevator
Answers: BUTTONS, CABLES, MOTOR, SHAFT
These are all parts of an elevator system. Buttons let passengers choose floors, cables help support and move the car, the motor provides power and the shaft is the vertical space through which the elevator travels.
Reveal the Purple Group
Category: Starting with male animals
Answers: BUCKYBALL, JACKPOT, RAMBO, TOMATILLO
Each word begins with a term for a male animal: BUCK in BUCKYBALL, JACK in JACKPOT, RAM in RAMBO and TOM in TOMATILLO.
Why Connections #1153 was tricky: Three groups depend on fairly direct meanings, while the purple category ignores the definitions of the full words and instead focuses on their beginnings.
The green group can also create hesitation because LIQUID NITROGEN, REFRIGERATOR, SNOW and SUNDAE come from very different settings. Temperature is the only feature that links all four precisely.
Today’s solving lesson: When the remaining words seem unrelated, inspect their prefixes, suffixes or hidden letter patterns. Connections often saves this type of wordplay for its hardest group.
Players can attempt the official daily puzzle and review their results on the New York Times Connections page.
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