NYT Connections Hints, Answers & Clues -
NYT Connections #1114 Tip
One category hides inside the endings of four unrelated-looking words.
What Makes NYT Connections #1114 Tricky?
WOOFER, ROGUE, NUDIBRANCH, and CABINET land in very different mental spaces — a speaker component, a villain, a sea slug, and a piece of furniture — yet all sixteen words have to fit into exactly four groups.
The editor's deepest trick is a category where the words themselves are not the connection — you have to look at what is hiding inside the endings of certain words, not at what the words mean.
Easier than average for two groups, genuinely hard for one — the hidden-ending category will stump most players until the penny drops, and once it does, the remaining words fall into place fast.
Connections Hints for Every Word in the June 29, 2026 Puzzle
WOOFER
Connections hint for WOOFER
The large driver in a speaker system responsible for reproducing low-frequency bass sounds — a genuine speaker component, not a dog joke.
RUFFIAN
Connections hint for RUFFIAN
A rough, violent person — old-fashioned slang for a street thug or brawler, the kind of word a Victorian would use.
INHALE
Connections hint for INHALE
To breathe in — but colloquially, to inhale food means to eat it so fast it barely touches the sides.
GROOT
Connections hint for GROOT
The tree-like Marvel character who only says 'I am Groot' — but look at the last four letters and you will find a tree part hiding there.
EMBARK
Connections hint for EMBARK
To board a ship or begin a journey — a perfectly normal English verb whose final three letters contain a tree part.
MAGNET
Connections hint for MAGNET
The permanent magnet inside a speaker that interacts with the voice coil to move the cone — a core component of how speakers work.
SNARF
Connections hint for SNARF
To eat or drink greedily and noisily — informal and vivid, exactly the kind of word that belongs with guzzle and inhale.
CONE
Connections hint for CONE
The cone-shaped paper or plastic diaphragm inside a speaker driver that vibrates to produce sound — not an ice cream cone here.
ROGUE
Connections hint for ROGUE
A dishonest or mischievous person — a classic old-timey label for a scoundrel or trickster, still used today but with a vintage flavour.
CRUSH
Connections hint for CRUSH
To defeat or destroy — but also slang for eating or drinking something with intense enthusiasm, as in 'she crushed that burger'.
CABINET
Connections hint for CABINET
The wooden or plastic enclosure that houses a speaker's drivers and components — not a kitchen cabinet or a government cabinet here.
STRUNK
Connections hint for STRUNK
As in Strunk and White, authors of The Elements of Style — but the final five letters of this word hide a tree part.
NUDIBRANCH
Connections hint for NUDIBRANCH
A type of brightly coloured sea slug — exotic-sounding and seemingly random here, but its ending conceals a tree part.
MISCREANT
Connections hint for MISCREANT
A person who behaves badly or breaks the law — a wonderfully old-fashioned word for a wrongdoer or villain.
GUZZLE
Connections hint for GUZZLE
To drink greedily and in large quantities — the most classic of the 'consume with abandon' words in this grid.
SCOUNDREL
Connections hint for SCOUNDREL
A dishonest or unscrupulous person — another gloriously old-timey insult, the kind Han Solo gets called.
Traps & Misdirects Hints for NYT Connections Puzzle (#1114)
WOOFER is the low-frequency driver in a speaker, CONE is the paper diaphragm that moves air, and CABINET is the enclosure the whole thing lives in — three speaker parts that practically beg to be grouped together. The danger is locking these three in before you confirm the fourth member, which is less obvious than these three.
CRUSH, INHALE, and SNARF all describe devouring something with zero restraint — the grouping feels obvious. The risk is assuming the fourth word is equally obvious and grabbing something that actually belongs elsewhere.
GROOT reads as a Marvel character, EMBARK as a verb meaning to board a ship, NUDIBRANCH as a type of sea creature, and STRUNK as the co-author of a famous writing guide — nothing connects them on the surface. The connection is not what these words mean but what tree-related word is hiding inside the last few letters of each one. Look at the endings, not the definitions.
Connections Hints for June 29, 2026
Yellow Connections Hints
Yellow Category Hint
Old-fashioned words for a villain or bad person
Think: Think: Victorian insults, period drama
Yellow Category Name
OLD TIMEY TROUBLEMAKERS
Yellow Category Words
Reveal word 1
MISCREANTReveal word 2
ROGUEReveal word 3
RUFFIANReveal word 4
SCOUNDRELGreen Connections Hints
Green Category Hint
Verbs meaning to eat or drink with zero restraint
Think: Think: wolfing it down fast
Green Category Name
CONSUME WITH GUSTO
Green Category Words
Reveal word 1
CRUSHReveal word 2
GUZZLEReveal word 3
INHALEReveal word 4
SNARFBlue Connections Hints
Blue Category Hint
Physical components found inside or around a loudspeaker
Think: Think: what makes sound come out
Blue Category Name
PARTS OF A SPEAKER
Blue Category Words
Reveal word 1
CABINETReveal word 2
CONEReveal word 3
MAGNETReveal word 4
WOOFERPurple Connections Hints
Purple Category Hint
Each word's final letters spell out a part of a tree
Think: Think: endings, not meanings
Purple Category Name
ENDING IN PARTS OF A TREE
Purple Category Words
Reveal word 1
EMBARKReveal word 2
GROOTReveal word 3
NUDIBRANCHReveal word 4
STRUNKNYT Connections Answers for June 29, 2026
NYT Connections Answers Explained: June 29, 2026
OLD TIMEY TROUBLEMAKERS
MISCREANT, ROGUE, RUFFIAN, and SCOUNDREL are all old-fashioned words for a bad or dishonest person — the kind of vocabulary a Victorian novelist or a period-drama villain would reach for.
- MISCREANT
- A miscreant is a person who behaves badly or commits crimes — a formal, slightly archaic word for a wrongdoer.
- ROGUE
- A rogue is a dishonest or mischievous person — the word has a roguish charm to it, which is why it survived into modern use.
- RUFFIAN
- A ruffian is a rough, violent person — a street tough or brawler, the word conjuring cobblestones and gaslight.
- SCOUNDREL
- A scoundrel is an unscrupulous or dishonest person — a gloriously theatrical insult that peaked in the 19th century.
CONSUME WITH GUSTO
CRUSH, GUZZLE, INHALE, and SNARF all mean to eat or drink something greedily and with great enthusiasm — each word carries a sense of speed and total lack of restraint.
- CRUSH
- In informal use, to crush food or drink means to consume it with impressive speed and enthusiasm — 'he crushed three slices in two minutes'.
- GUZZLE
- To guzzle is to drink greedily and in large quantities — the word itself sounds like the act, all gulping and excess.
- INHALE
- To inhale food is to eat it so fast it seems to disappear without chewing — borrowed from the literal meaning of breathing in.
- SNARF
- To snarf is to eat or drink greedily and noisily — informal and vivid, it sits comfortably alongside guzzle and inhale.
PARTS OF A SPEAKER
CABINET, CONE, MAGNET, and WOOFER are all physical components of a loudspeaker system — together they describe the enclosure, the vibrating diaphragm, the motor element, and the low-frequency driver.
- CABINET
- The cabinet is the enclosure — usually a wooden box — that houses the speaker's drivers and shapes the sound.
- CONE
- The cone is the cone-shaped diaphragm, typically made of paper or plastic, that vibrates back and forth to push air and create sound.
- MAGNET
- The permanent magnet sits at the back of a speaker driver and creates the magnetic field that the voice coil reacts against to move the cone.
- WOOFER
- A woofer is the large driver in a speaker system specifically designed to reproduce low-frequency bass sounds.
ENDING IN PARTS OF A TREE
EMBARK, GROOT, NUDIBRANCH, and STRUNK each end in a word that names a part of a tree — BARK, ROOT, BRANCH, and TRUNK respectively — hidden inside longer words that have nothing to do with trees.
- EMBARK
- EMBARK ends in BARK — the outer covering of a tree's trunk and branches. The word means to begin a journey, but BARK is sitting right there at the end.
- GROOT
- GROOT ends in ROOT — the underground part of a tree that anchors it and absorbs water. The Marvel character's name hides ROOT in its final four letters.
- NUDIBRANCH
- NUDIBRANCH ends in BRANCH — a division of a tree's trunk or limb. A nudibranch is a sea slug, but BRANCH closes out the word.
- STRUNK
- STRUNK ends in TRUNK — the main woody stem of a tree. Strunk is best known as co-author of the writing guide The Elements of Style, but TRUNK is hiding at the end.
