NYT Connections Hints, Answers & Clues -
NYT Connections #1047 Tip
One category is hiding inside other words entirely.
What Makes NYT Connections #1047 Tricky?
PULP, SCIENCE, FLANK, and WHAMMY share a grid with MOTHER, TOTORO, and ASIAGO — a collision of fiction genres, planetary mnemonics, a Studio Ghibli film, and a cheese that makes the surface feel genuinely scattered.
The editor's deepest trick is that four words contain hidden shorter words inside them, and you have to stop reading each word as a whole and start scanning its letters for something buried.
Hard overall — one group is a clean solve once you know the mnemonic, one group rewards any fiction reader, but the hidden-word category will cost most players at least one mistake.
Connections Hints for Every Word in the April 23, 2026 Puzzle
MOTHER
Connections hint for MOTHER
An ordinary word for a parent — but here it is one word in a famous sentence schoolchildren memorise to recall the planets in order.
MY
Connections hint for MY
A possessive pronoun — and the first word of a well-known planetary mnemonic sentence.
NEIGHBOR
Connections hint for NEIGHBOR
The person next door — and a verb meaning to border or be adjacent to something.
TOTORO
Connections hint for TOTORO
The beloved Studio Ghibli character — but look inside the letters: a four-letter 1980s band is hiding in there.
TOUCH
Connections hint for TOUCH
To make physical contact — and a verb meaning to share a border with something.
WHAMMY
Connections hint for WHAMMY
Slang for a powerful negative force, as in double whammy — but a four-letter 1980s band name is concealed inside it.
SKIRT
Connections hint for SKIRT
A garment — and a verb meaning to run along the edge of something, which is the sense used here.
SCIENCE
Connections hint for SCIENCE
The study of the natural world — and the word that completes a well-known genre of fiction.
PULP
Connections hint for PULP
Cheap, sensational fiction printed on low-quality paper — a recognised genre label used here in that sense.
EDUCATED
Connections hint for EDUCATED
Having received an education — and one word in the planetary mnemonic sentence, not a standalone adjective here.
LITERARY
Connections hint for LITERARY
Relating to literature — and a specific label for serious, character-driven fiction as a genre.
ASIAGO
Connections hint for ASIAGO
An Italian cheese from the Veneto region — but a four-letter 1980s band name is hidden inside these six letters.
DEVOTE
Connections hint for DEVOTE
To dedicate time or effort to something — but look past the English meaning: a four-letter 1980s band is embedded in this word.
VERY
Connections hint for VERY
An intensifier meaning extremely — and one word in the sentence used to memorise the order of the planets.
HISTORICAL
Connections hint for HISTORICAL
Relating to history — and a recognised fiction genre label, as in historical fiction.
FLANK
Connections hint for FLANK
The side of something — and a verb meaning to be positioned along the border of something.
Traps & Misdirects Hints for NYT Connections Puzzle (#1047)
PULP fiction, LITERARY fiction, HISTORICAL fiction — three words that attach naturally to the word fiction make it tempting to assume the fourth is obvious. The group is real and intact, but players often second-guess it and swap one of these out for a word from another category.
TOTORO looks like a proper noun from anime, ASIAGO looks like an Italian cheese, DEVOTE looks like a plain English verb, and WHAMMY looks like slang — nothing connects them on the surface. Each of these words contains a four-letter name of a famous 1980s band hiding inside its letters, and that hidden band name is the only thing they share.
MY, VERY, EDUCATED, and MOTHER are four ordinary words that seem to have nothing in common, and a player who does not recognise the planetary mnemonic will spend time trying to force them into other categories. These four words are the opening words of a sentence used to remember the order of the planets — but none of that meaning is visible on the surface.
Connections Hints for April 23, 2026
Yellow Connections Hints
Yellow Category Hint
Verbs meaning to be at the edge of something
Think: Think: adjacent, alongside, edging
Yellow Category Name
BORDER
Yellow Category Words
Reveal word 1
FLANKReveal word 2
NEIGHBORReveal word 3
SKIRTReveal word 4
TOUCHGreen Connections Hints
Green Category Hint
Labels that precede the word fiction to name a genre
Think: Think: bookshop genre shelves
Green Category Name
KINDS OF FICTION
Green Category Words
Reveal word 1
HISTORICALReveal word 2
LITERARYReveal word 3
PULPReveal word 4
SCIENCEBlue Connections Hints
Blue Category Hint
Words from a sentence used to memorise the planets
Think: Think: Mercury, Venus, Earth...
Blue Category Name
WORDS IN A PLANETARY MNEMONIC
Blue Category Words
Reveal word 1
EDUCATEDReveal word 2
MOTHERReveal word 3
MYReveal word 4
VERYPurple Connections Hints
Purple Category Hint
Longer words with a four-letter 1980s band name inside
Think: Think: hidden within, not the word itself
Purple Category Name
STARTING WITH FOUR-LETTER '80S BANDS
Purple Category Words
Reveal word 1
ASIAGOReveal word 2
DEVOTEReveal word 3
TOTOROReveal word 4
WHAMMYNYT Connections Answers for April 23, 2026
NYT Connections Answers Explained: April 23, 2026
BORDER
FLANK, NEIGHBOR, SKIRT, and TOUCH all function as verbs meaning to be at or along the edge of something — each word has a more familiar everyday meaning that hides this shared sense.
- FLANK
- To flank something is to be positioned along its side — a river flanks a road, troops flank an enemy position.
- NEIGHBOR
- As a verb, to neighbor means to border or be adjacent to — country A neighbors country B along a shared boundary.
- SKIRT
- To skirt something is to run along its edge without crossing it — a path skirts the forest, a road skirts the cliff.
- TOUCH
- When two areas touch, they share a border — their territories touch at the river is a direct synonym for border.
KINDS OF FICTION
HISTORICAL, LITERARY, PULP, and SCIENCE are all words that precede the word fiction to name a recognised genre — historical fiction, literary fiction, pulp fiction, and science fiction.
- HISTORICAL
- Historical fiction is a genre set in the past, using real historical periods or events as its backdrop.
- LITERARY
- Literary fiction is a genre label for serious, character-driven novels prioritising style and theme over plot.
- PULP
- Pulp fiction refers to cheap, fast-paced, sensational stories originally printed on low-quality pulp paper — a genre label as much as a material.
- SCIENCE
- Science fiction — commonly shortened to sci-fi — is the genre dealing with imagined futures, space, technology, and scientific speculation.
WORDS IN A PLANETARY MNEMONIC
MY, VERY, EDUCATED, and MOTHER are four of the words in the sentence 'My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos' — a mnemonic used to remember the eight planets in order from the Sun.
- MY
- The first word of the mnemonic — standing for Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun.
- VERY
- The second word — standing for Venus, the second planet.
- EDUCATED
- The third word — standing for Earth, the third planet and the one we live on.
- MOTHER
- The fourth word — standing for Mars, the fourth planet, the red one.
STARTING WITH FOUR-LETTER '80S BANDS
ASIAGO, DEVOTE, TOTORO, and WHAMMY each begin with the name of a famous 1980s band — ASIA, DEVO, TOTO, and WHAM — hidden inside the longer word.
- ASIAGO
- ASIA is hidden at the start — Asia was the British rock band behind the 1982 hit Heat of the Moment.
- DEVOTE
- DEVO is hidden at the start — Devo was the American new-wave band known for Whip It and their signature flower-pot hats.
- TOTORO
- TOTO is hidden at the start — Toto was the American rock band behind Africa and Rosanna, both massive 1980s hits.
- WHAMMY
- WHAM is hidden at the start — Wham! was the British pop duo of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley, known for Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.
