NYT Connections puzzle #1190 for Sunday, September 13, 2026 leans into wordplay – the Purple group in particular rewards anyone who looks past the obvious meaning of a word. Here are all four answers, from easiest to hardest.
If you want to try it first, here are one hint per group:
Yellow hint: they all describe something without stiffness.
Green hint: think history class, not cartoons – though there is some overlap.
Blue hint: say them out loud.
Purple hint: the landform is hiding at the end of each word.
Yellow – Lacking in Firmness
DROOPY, FLACCID, SAGGING, SLACK
The easiest group today. All four words describe something without rigidity or backbone – a limp handshake, a sagging ceiling, a slack rope. The trap is DROOPY, which many players associate with the cartoon dog, but here it is purely descriptive.
Green – U.S. Presidents
CLEVELAND, GARFIELD, GRANT, MADISON
Four presidents – but each one is also something else. GARFIELD is a cartoon cat. MADISON is a mermaid film. GRANT is an actor’s name. CLEVELAND is a city. The puzzle is betting you chase the wrong associations. All four are legitimate U.S. presidents: Grover Cleveland (22nd and 24th), James Garfield (20th), Ulysses S. Grant (18th), and James Madison (4th).
Blue – Words That Sound Like Two Letters
EMPTY, EXCESS, KEWPIE, ODIE
Say each word aloud and listen: EMPTY = M-T, EXCESS = X-S, KEWPIE = Q-P, ODIE = O-D. The game is hiding two-letter pairs inside everyday words. ODIE catches most players off guard – the cartoon dog from Garfield, yes, but today he is two letters in disguise.
Purple – Ending in Elevated Landforms
DOUBLESPEAK, HEATHCLIFF, PARAMOUNT, PORRIDGE
The toughest group. The theme words end with a geographic feature that describes high ground: doublesPEAK, heathCLIFF, paraMOUNT, porRIDGE. PORRIDGE is the one that trips people – it does not obviously evoke mountains, but RIDGE is sitting right there at the end.
Yesterday’s NYT Connections answers for September 11, 2026 featured a puzzle built around the theme of self-care and event planning. If you are also working on today’s other puzzles, the Wordle answer for September 11 was ASTER, and the Strands answer for September 11 centred on life by the waterfront.
