NYT Connections Hint: Clues & Answers – (#1047)
One category is hiding inside other words entirely.
Written by Vaibhav RajputConnections Puzzle #1047 — April 23, 2026
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.
16 Connections words and their meanings
Tap any word to see what it means in the April 23, 2026 puzzle.
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
A possessive pronoun — and the first word of a well-known planetary mnemonic sentence.
NEIGHBOR
The person next door — and a verb meaning to border or be adjacent to something.
TOTORO
The beloved Studio Ghibli character — but look inside the letters: a four-letter 1980s band is hiding in there.
TOUCH
To make physical contact — and a verb meaning to share a border with something.
WHAMMY
Slang for a powerful negative force, as in double whammy — but a four-letter 1980s band name is concealed inside it.
SKIRT
A garment — and a verb meaning to run along the edge of something, which is the sense used here.
SCIENCE
The study of the natural world — and the word that completes a well-known genre of fiction.
PULP
Cheap, sensational fiction printed on low-quality paper — a recognised genre label used here in that sense.
EDUCATED
Having received an education — and one word in the planetary mnemonic sentence, not a standalone adjective here.
LITERARY
Relating to literature — and a specific label for serious, character-driven fiction as a genre.
ASIAGO
An Italian cheese from the Veneto region — but a four-letter 1980s band name is hidden inside these six letters.
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
An intensifier meaning extremely — and one word in the sentence used to memorise the order of the planets.
HISTORICAL
Relating to history — and a recognised fiction genre label, as in historical fiction.
FLANK
The side of something — and a verb meaning to be positioned along the border of something.
Traps and misdirects
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
Each category is independent. Reveal only what you need.
Yellow — Easiest
See hint
Verbs meaning to be at the edge of something
Think: Think: adjacent, alongside, edging
See group name
BORDER
See words
Reveal word 1
FLANKReveal word 2
NEIGHBORReveal word 3
SKIRTReveal word 4
TOUCHGreen — Moderate
See hint
Labels that precede the word fiction to name a genre
Think: Think: bookshop genre shelves
See group name
KINDS OF FICTION
See words
Reveal word 1
HISTORICALReveal word 2
LITERARYReveal word 3
PULPReveal word 4
SCIENCEBlue — Hard
See hint
Words from a sentence used to memorise the planets
Think: Think: Mercury, Venus, Earth...
See group name
WORDS IN A PLANETARY MNEMONIC
See words
Reveal word 1
EDUCATEDReveal word 2
MOTHERReveal word 3
MYReveal word 4
VERYPurple — Hardest
See hint
Longer words with a four-letter 1980s band name inside
Think: Think: hidden within, not the word itself
See group name
STARTING WITH FOUR-LETTER '80S BANDS
See words
Reveal word 1
ASIAGOReveal word 2
DEVOTEReveal word 3
TOTOROReveal word 4
WHAMMYConnections Answers for April 23, 2026
The Connections Explained
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.
