Today’s NYT Connections puzzle (#1185, September 8, 2026) is solved below – all four categories, Yellow through Purple, from easiest to hardest. Three hints come first for anyone still working through the grid.
Hints
Still in the puzzle? Three nudges before the full reveal:
- The Yellow category celebrates American muscle – four iconic cars that defined the performance era on the open road.
- The Green category looks French but isn’t really about France; zoom out to the full costume before committing.
- The Purple category is today’s genuine stumper: each word is a well-known candy bar name with exactly one letter added to the end.
Full Connections Answers – September 8, 2026
Yellow – CLASSIC AMERICAN PERFORMANCE CARS
Corvette, Firebird, Mustang, Viper
Green – FEATURES OF A MIME COSTUME
Beret, Gloves, Stripes, Suspenders
Blue – ___ HEART
Artichoke, Purple, Sacred, Take to
Purple – CANDY BARS PLUS A LETTER
Doves (Dove+S), Marsh (Mars+H), Skort (Skor+T), Twixt (Twix+T)
Today’s Difficulty
Yellow and Green should fall quickly. The Blue group, “___ heart,” may slow solvers who don’t immediately see that “Artichoke heart,” “Sacred Heart,” “Purple Heart,” and “Take to heart” share the same frame – the phrase structures vary just enough to obscure the pattern.
Purple is the day’s curveball. Each of the four words is a candy bar with a single letter tacked on: Dove becomes Doves, Mars becomes Marsh, Skor becomes Skort, Twix becomes Twixt. The individual words are ordinary enough that the candy-bar connection is easy to miss without stepping back from the grid.
The NYT Connections puzzle resets at midnight Eastern Time. Yesterday’s categories are covered in our September 7, 2026 Connections answers. For more daily puzzle coverage, see our September 7 Wordle answer.
