The NYT Connections answers for Monday, August 10, 2026 (puzzle #1156) are below. All four groups and their colour categories follow, with hints before the solutions for players still working through the board.
NYT Connections Hints for August 10 (No Spoilers)
Three broad hints before the answers:
- Hint 1: One category is entirely made up of phrases that mean “randomly” or “without order.”
- Hint 2: One category covers the different ways you can receive a ticket to a concert or sporting event.
- Hint 3: The hardest group names people or characters famous for wearing a goatee, including one that is not human.
NYT Connections Answers for August 10, 2026
Yellow (Easiest) – HAPHAZARDLY: ANY OLD HOW, AT RANDOM, HELTER-SKELTER, WILLY-NILLY
Green (Medium) – WAYS TO RECEIVE EVENT TICKETS: MAIL DELIVERY, MOBILE TICKET, PRINT-AT-HOME, WILL CALL
Blue (Hard) – SECTIONS ON AN INVOICE: BALANCE DUE, BILL TO, ORDER NUMBER, UNIT PRICE
Purple (Hardest) – FAMOUS GOATEES: BILLY GOAT, COLONEL SANDERS, DOCTOR STRANGE, THE DEVIL
Analysis and Difficulty Notes
Monday’s puzzle #1156 carries a hidden theme that threads through all four categories: WILL and BILL appear or are implied everywhere. WILLY-NILLY contains WILLY; WILL CALL names the ticketing method directly; BILL TO sits on the invoice; BILLY GOAT carries both names simultaneously. The NYT editorial team appears to have built the whole grid around that double pun, which makes the categories feel connected even after the board clears.
The Blue and Purple groups are where most players will stumble. BALANCE DUE and ORDER NUMBER read naturally as invoice fields, but BILL TO is easy to overlook when the grid is full of BILL and WILL associations pulling attention toward the goatee category. On Purple, BILLY GOAT is the trick entry: it is the only non-proper-noun name on that list, sitting alongside the fictional DOCTOR STRANGE and real figures COLONEL SANDERS and THE DEVIL. Grouping BILLY GOAT with celebrities and characters rather than with the BILL category is the puzzle’s sharpest misdirect.
Yesterday’s NYT Connections puzzle #1155 answers are available for today’s coverage.
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