The NYT Connections answers for Friday, August 7, 2026 (puzzle #1153) are below, with hints before the full reveal for solvers still working through the grid.
NYT Connections Hints – August 7, 2026 (#1153)
Yellow hint: Four things found inside or making up a candle.
Green hint: Four things that are extremely or noticeably cold – ranging from the everyday to the scientific.
Blue hint: Four components found inside, on, or operating an elevator.
Purple hint: Each of the four words begins with a word for a male animal. Think: a male deer, a male donkey, a male sheep, and a male cat.
NYT Connections Answers – Friday, August 7, 2026
Yellow – Components of a Candle: FRAGRANCE, JAR, WAX, WICK
Green – Cold Things: LIQUID NITROGEN, REFRIGERATOR, SNOW, SUNDAE
Blue – Parts of an Elevator: BUTTONS, CABLES, MOTOR, SHAFT
Purple – Starting With Male Animals: BUCKYBALL, JACKPOT, RAMBO, TOMATILLO
About Today’s Connections (#1153)
The purple category is today’s centrepiece, and it is one of the more satisfying of 2026: every word begins with a term for a male animal, and the disguise is near-perfect in each case. BUCKYBALL opens with BUCK, the word for a male deer (or rabbit, or antelope). JACKPOT opens with JACK, a male donkey. RAMBO opens with RAM, a male sheep. TOMATILLO opens with TOM, a male cat. None of these initial syllables announce themselves when you read the word as a whole – TOMATILLO reads as a Mexican green tomato, RAMBO as the fictional action hero, JACKPOT as a lottery win, BUCKYBALL as the carbon-60 molecule named after Buckminster Fuller. The animal connection is entirely invisible until the category reveals it, which is precisely what the puzzle designers intended.
The candle group is gentler but has its own misdirection. WAX and WICK are the words most solvers land on immediately – those two make a candle recognisable. JAR is easy once you picture a jar candle, which is now the dominant retail form. FRAGRANCE is the word most likely to cause hesitation: it reads as a stand-alone product category rather than a candle component, and solvers who thought of it in a perfume or cosmetics context may have tried it elsewhere before the yellow group confirmed it. The four together describe a modern scented candle entirely: the wax body, the cotton wick, the glass jar, and the essential-oil fragrance blended into the wax.
COLD THINGS presents a category with an unusually wide temperature range. LIQUID NITROGEN sits at minus 196 degrees Celsius and is used in cryogenic preservation, rapid freezing in food processing, and medical dermatology. SNOW forms at 0 degrees and is simply frozen precipitation. A REFRIGERATOR operates between 1 and 5 degrees Celsius for safe food storage. A SUNDAE is served cold but is not cold by nature – it is a dessert whose coldness is a function of its preparation, not its inherent state. SUNDAE is the word most likely to cause solvers a moment of doubt: is it cold enough to belong? The puzzle says yes.
The elevator group is the most functional of the four. CABLES are the steel ropes or belts that suspend and move the car. MOTOR drives the pulley that raises and lowers those cables. BUTTONS are the floor-selection and door-open controls inside the car and on each landing. SHAFT is the vertical enclosure through which the car travels. What makes this group tricky is that all four words carry strong alternative meanings: SHAFT evokes mining, anatomy, or shafts of light; CABLES suggest data transmission or television; MOTOR suggests a car engine; BUTTONS suggest clothing fasteners or the famous Warhol subject. Thinking mechanically about elevators, rather than reaching for the dominant meaning of each word, is the unlock.
For yesterday’s Connections #1151 answers on August 5, 2026, the categories were Navigate, Jeans Brands, House Styles, and What “Stock” Might Refer To. Connections #1154 resets at midnight tonight.
