NYT Connections Hints, Answers & Clues -
NYT Connections #1138 Tip
One category hides inside the endings of four unrelated-looking words.
What Makes NYT Connections #1138 Tricky?
TERMINAL, APRON, DEPLANE, and FELINE land in the same grid alongside MARBLE, FEBRILE, and JANGLE — a collision of airport vocabulary, animal adjectives, and words that feel like they wandered in from different dictionaries.
The editor's sharpest trick is hiding a category inside the final letters of four words — the words look completely unrelated on the surface, but their endings spell out a shared mathematical concept.
This one skews hard — the anxious-state group and the spherical group are findable once you commit to a reading, but the hidden-endings category will stall most players until they stop reading words as whole units.
Connections Hints for Every Word in the July 23, 2026 Puzzle
JANGLE
Connections hint for JANGLE
A discordant metallic clinking sound — but look past the meaning and read the last four letters carefully.
INTENSE
Connections hint for INTENSE
Extreme in degree or strength — here it means emotionally wound up, not just very strong coffee.
ORANGE
Connections hint for ORANGE
The round citrus fruit — its spherical shape is what matters here, not its colour or flavour.
FELINE
Connections hint for FELINE
Relating to cats — but this puzzle is not interested in cats; it is interested in the three letters at the end.
FEBRILE
Connections hint for FEBRILE
Feverish — and by extension, agitated or frantically busy, as if running a mental temperature.
BASEBALL
Connections hint for BASEBALL
The hard round ball used in the sport — the ball itself, not the game, is what earns it a place here.
MARBLE
Connections hint for MARBLE
A small hard glass sphere used in children's games — perfectly round, which is the only thing that matters here.
APRON
Connections hint for APRON
In aviation, the paved area around a terminal where aircraft park and are serviced — a genuine airport term.
APPOINT
Connections hint for APPOINT
To officially assign someone to a position — ignore the meaning and check what letters it ends with.
TERMINAL
Connections hint for TERMINAL
An airport terminal is where passengers arrive and depart — one of the most recognisable parts of any airport.
EXCITED
Connections hint for EXCITED
Keyed up and eager — in this puzzle it sits alongside words meaning agitated and frantic rather than simply happy.
RUNWAY
Connections hint for RUNWAY
The long strip of tarmac where aircraft take off and land — a core structural part of any airport.
FRENETIC
Connections hint for FRENETIC
Wildly energetic and chaotic — frantic activity driven by anxiety or urgency.
HANGAR
Connections hint for HANGAR
A large building where aircraft are stored and maintained — a standard part of any airport's infrastructure.
DEPLANE
Connections hint for DEPLANE
To exit an aircraft after landing — an aviation word, but the puzzle may be using its ending rather than its meaning.
GLOBE
Connections hint for GLOBE
A spherical model of the Earth — round by definition, which is its qualification here.
Traps & Misdirects Hints for NYT Connections Puzzle (#1138)
TERMINAL is where you check in, APRON is the tarmac area where planes park, and RUNWAY is where they take off — the airport connection is airtight and obvious. That reading is incomplete. One of these three words belongs to a completely different category, and pulling the wrong one into the airport group will cost you a mistake.
DEPLANE means to exit an aircraft, HANGAR is where planes are stored, and APRON is the paved area around a terminal — all three feel like aviation vocabulary. One of them is not in the airport category. Its aviation meaning is real, but the puzzle is using a different part of the word entirely.
ORANGE is a round fruit, MARBLE is a small round ball, and GLOBE is a spherical model of the Earth — grouping these three as spherical things feels natural. All three are indeed spherical, but so is a fourth word in this grid that does not look like it belongs with them at first glance.
FELINE means cat-like, JANGLE is a harsh clinking sound, and APPOINT means to assign someone to a role — nothing connects these three words on the surface, which is exactly why they are dangerous. The connection is not what these words mean but what they end with, and spotting that requires reading them as strings of letters rather than as vocabulary.
Connections Hints for July 23, 2026
Yellow Connections Hints
Yellow Category Hint
Round objects — fruits, toys, sports equipment, models
Think: Think: perfectly spherical, holds its shape
Yellow Category Name
SPHERICAL THINGS
Yellow Category Words
Reveal word 1
BASEBALLReveal word 2
GLOBEReveal word 3
MARBLEReveal word 4
ORANGEGreen Connections Hints
Green Category Hint
Words describing a frantic, wound-up, high-energy state
Think: Think: nervous energy, can't sit still
Green Category Name
IN AN ANXIOUS STATE
Green Category Words
Reveal word 1
EXCITEDReveal word 2
FEBRILEReveal word 3
FRENETICReveal word 4
INTENSEBlue Connections Hints
Blue Category Hint
Named zones or structures you find at an airport
Think: Think: where planes go, where people go
Blue Category Name
PARTS OF AN AIRPORT
Blue Category Words
Reveal word 1
APRONReveal word 2
HANGARReveal word 3
RUNWAYReveal word 4
TERMINALPurple Connections Hints
Purple Category Hint
Each word contains a geometry term buried in its ending
Think: Think: shapes, angles, lines — hidden inside
Purple Category Name
ENDING IN GEOMETRY TERMS
Purple Category Words
Reveal word 1
APPOINTReveal word 2
DEPLANEReveal word 3
FELINEReveal word 4
JANGLENYT Connections Answers for July 23, 2026
NYT Connections Answers Explained: July 23, 2026
SPHERICAL THINGS
BASEBALL, GLOBE, MARBLE, and ORANGE are all spherical objects — a sports ball, a model of the Earth, a glass toy, and a round fruit, each defined by their round three-dimensional shape.
- BASEBALL
- The baseball itself — the hard, stitched round ball used in the sport — is perfectly spherical.
- GLOBE
- A globe is a spherical model of the Earth, round by design and definition.
- MARBLE
- A marble is a small hard glass sphere, classically used in children's games — round is its entire identity.
- ORANGE
- The citrus fruit is famously round — its spherical shape, not its colour or taste, is what places it here.
IN AN ANXIOUS STATE
EXCITED, FEBRILE, FRENETIC, and INTENSE all describe a person in a heightened, wound-up, anxious state — each word captures a different shade of that frantic energy.
- EXCITED
- Keyed up and agitated — in this context it leans toward nervous anticipation rather than simple happiness.
- FEBRILE
- Literally meaning feverish, febrile is used figuratively to describe frantic, overheated mental or emotional activity.
- FRENETIC
- Wildly fast and chaotic — frenetic energy is the kind driven by anxiety or urgency, not calm enthusiasm.
- INTENSE
- Extremely concentrated in feeling or effort — an intense person is wound tight, which maps onto anxious energy.
PARTS OF AN AIRPORT
APRON, HANGAR, RUNWAY, and TERMINAL are all named zones or structures that make up an airport — the parking area, the storage building, the take-off strip, and the passenger building.
- APRON
- The apron is the paved area around a terminal where aircraft park, are loaded, and are serviced — a standard aviation term.
- HANGAR
- A hangar is a large building where aircraft are stored, maintained, and repaired — a core part of any airport's infrastructure.
- RUNWAY
- The runway is the long paved strip where aircraft accelerate for take-off and decelerate after landing.
- TERMINAL
- The terminal is the main passenger building where check-in, security, gates, and arrivals are housed — the most visible part of any airport.
ENDING IN GEOMETRY TERMS
APPOINT, DEPLANE, FELINE, and JANGLE each end with a geometry term hidden inside them — POINT, PLANE, LINE, and ANGLE — words that name fundamental concepts in geometry.
- APPOINT
- The last five letters of APPOINT spell POINT — a location in geometry with no size or dimension, just a position.
- DEPLANE
- The last five letters of DEPLANE spell PLANE — a flat two-dimensional surface that extends infinitely in geometry.
- FELINE
- The last four letters of FELINE spell LINE — a straight one-dimensional path extending in both directions, a basic geometry term.
- JANGLE
- The last five letters of JANGLE spell ANGLE — the measure of rotation between two lines meeting at a point, a core geometry concept.
