The NYT Connections answers for Saturday, July 18, 2026 (puzzle #1133) are below, with all four groups revealed.
Yellow (Commit A Basketball Violation): CARRY, DOUBLE DRIBBLE, GOALTEND, TRAVEL
Green (Belief): ATTITUDE, MIND, OPINION, VIEW
Blue (Things Tracked In Video Games): HEALTH, LIVES, SCORE, TIME
Purple (Words After “Pop”): CULTURE, FLY, QUIZ, TART
The Yellow group is the most accessible of the four: CARRY, DOUBLE DRIBBLE, GOALTEND, and TRAVEL are all standard basketball violation calls, the kind that stop play and award possession. TRAVEL is the trap here – it reads as a common everyday word before the basketball frame clicks into place. GOALTEND is the most technical, rarely appearing outside the sport, which makes it the easiest to place once the category theme is clear.
Green pairs four words that all mean belief or standpoint: ATTITUDE, MIND, OPINION, and VIEW. The challenge is that MIND and VIEW have many non-belief meanings (“never mind,” “view from a window”), so solvers who don’t spot the synonymy first may misfile them into the video game group. ATTITUDE also pulls double duty as a demeanor word, which adds noise.
Blue collects four things any gamer watches on a HUD: HEALTH, LIVES, SCORE, and TIME. Tight and clean once the category snaps, but TIME is a word with broad enough meaning to sit ambiguously until the others confirm the pattern.
Purple is Saturday’s hardest group. Pop-CULTURE, Pop-FLY (baseball), Pop-QUIZ, and Pop-TART: four compound words or phrases where POP precedes each answer word. POP FLY is the sports crossover that trips solvers who have already used basketball for Yellow – the second sport hidden in the puzzle is the late reveal. POP TART is the brand name that doubles as a genericized snack term, and the uppercase TART in the puzzle grid is the only hint that a compound is at play.
The Wordle #1855 answer for July 18, 2026 is BOOTH. The NYT Strands #866 answers for July 17 are also live. Connections reset at midnight ET.
