Today’s NYT Connections puzzle for Friday, July 24, 2026, is puzzle #1139. The grid includes misleading links involving movement, animals, baseball and words that sound like religious roles.
The biggest distraction is CANTER, which appears to fit naturally with JOG and WALK. However, all three words belong to different groups in today’s puzzle.
NYT Connections hints for July 24
- Yellow: Words for talking continuously or for longer than necessary.
- Green: Possible outcomes when a baseball player comes to bat.
- Blue: Words that can describe causing a memory to return.
- Purple: Say each word aloud and listen for the name of a religious role.
Main trap: CANTER, JOG and WALK all relate to movement, but they do not form a complete category. WALK belongs with baseball outcomes, JOG relates to memory, and CANTER is part of the wordplay group.
Animal trap: LLAMA and YAK may appear to suggest an animal category. However, YAK is used as a verb meaning to talk at length, while LLAMA works through its pronunciation.
Stronger clue: One group depends on meanings, while another depends entirely on how the words sound rather than what they mean.
Today’s NYT Connections answers
Reveal the Yellow Group
Category: Talk at length
Answers: BABBLE, DRONE, RAMBLE, YAK
All four words can mean speaking continuously, repetitively or for an unnecessarily long time. YAK is the main distraction because it is also the name of an animal.
Reveal the Green Group
Category: Outcomes for a batter
Answers: HOME RUN, SINGLE, STRIKEOUT, WALK
Each answer is a possible outcome when a baseball player comes to bat. WALK is misleading because its everyday meaning suggests movement rather than sport.
Reveal the Blue Group
Category: Bring to mind, as a memory
Answers: JOG, PROMPT, REFRESH, SPARK
Each word can describe causing someone to remember something. A question may jog, prompt, refresh or spark a memory.
Reveal the Purple Group
Category: Homophones of religious roles
Answers: CANTER, FRYER, LLAMA, NONE
When spoken aloud, the words resemble religious roles: CANTOR, FRIAR, LAMA and NUN.
Why Connections #1139 was challenging: Several words created convincing false categories. CANTER, JOG and WALK suggested movement, while LLAMA and YAK encouraged an animal-based grouping.
The purple category was especially difficult because the connection depended on pronunciation. The written meanings of CANTER, FRYER, LLAMA and NONE do not point naturally toward one shared theme.
Today’s solving lesson: When three words appear to form an obvious group but no fourth word fits precisely, check secondary meanings and sounds. Connections frequently uses homophones and words that belong to different grammatical or thematic types.
Players can attempt the official daily puzzle and review their results on the New York Times Connections page.
Make Swikblog your go-to source on Google for reliable updates, smart insights, and daily trends.
