NYT Connections Hints, Answers & Clues -
Four everyday words are secretly fishing for a different category.
Written by Vaibhav RajputConnections Puzzle #1061 — May 7, 2026
Words like TRAVEL, CARRY, FLY, and DROVE sit in this grid alongside CHANNEL, VOLUME, and GOALTEND — a collision of movement verbs, sports calls, and broadcast terms that makes it genuinely hard to know where to start.
The editor's trick is that several words have a completely dominant everyday meaning that pulls you away from the much simpler, more literal sense the puzzle actually needs.
Moderate difficulty overall — one group is almost certainly your first solve, one requires you to think in a very specific sporting context, and the remaining two depend on whether you can shake off the obvious reading of some very common words.
NYT Connections Words: Hints & Clues for May 7, 2026
Here are the 16 words for the Thursday, May 7, 2026 NYT Connections puzzle (#1061). Each word has a specific hint or clue hiding in its meaning – tap any word before you guess to see its NYT Connections hint and figure out which words belong together.
MASS
Connections hint for MASS
A large quantity or crowd of something — not a church service or a unit of physics, just a multitude.
TRAVEL
Connections hint for TRAVEL
In basketball, taking too many steps without dribbling is called traveling — a common foul, not a vacation.
CHANNEL
Connections hint for CHANNEL
You flip through channels with the up/down buttons on a remote — here it is about what those buttons control, not the broadcast itself.
LINE
Connections hint for LINE
A fishing line is the thin cord that runs from the rod to the hook — one of the most basic pieces of tackle.
VOLUME
Connections hint for VOLUME
The up/down volume buttons on any device control this — the loudness level, not the size of a book.
DROVE
Connections hint for DROVE
A drove is a large moving crowd or herd — an old word for a multitude that still shows up in 'droves'.
CAR WINDOW
Connections hint for CAR WINDOW
The electric window in a car rises and falls with up/down buttons on the door panel — that mechanism is the point here.
FLY
Connections hint for FLY
Fly fishing uses an artificial fly as bait — FLY here is the lure, a core piece of fishing gear, not the act of flying.
PACK
Connections hint for PACK
A pack is a large group — a pack of wolves, a pack of people — meaning a multitude, not a backpack or a bundle.
CARRY
Connections hint for CARRY
In basketball, carrying is an illegal move where a player lets the ball rest in their palm while dribbling — a violation, not just transporting something.
NET
Connections hint for NET
A fishing net is used to scoop or trap fish — here it is gear, not the basketball hoop net you might picture first.
GOALTEND
Connections hint for GOALTEND
Goaltending in basketball means illegally blocking a shot that is on its downward arc toward the basket — a specific infraction.
ELEVATOR
Connections hint for ELEVATOR
An elevator goes up and down at the press of a button — the up/down button control is the connection here.
HOST
Connections hint for HOST
A host is a large number of something — a host of problems, a heavenly host — an old word for a multitude.
DOUBLE-DRIBBLE
Connections hint for DOUBLE-DRIBBLE
Dribbling with both hands simultaneously, or stopping and starting your dribble again, is a double-dribble — an illegal move in basketball.
HOOK
Connections hint for HOOK
A fishing hook is the curved metal piece that catches the fish — fundamental fishing gear, though it also means many other things.
Traps and misdirects
TRAVEL means to go somewhere, CARRY means to transport something, and FLY means to move through the air — all three feel like synonyms for movement or transportation. That movement cluster is a dead end. Each of these words belongs to a completely different group in this puzzle.
CHANNEL is a TV channel you flip through, VOLUME is the loudness you adjust, and MASS is a large amount of something — the broadcast-and-quantity cluster feels coherent. That grouping is a trap. These three words belong to three different categories, and the connection that matters for two of them is more physical than it first appears.
PACK of wolves, DROVE of cattle, HOST of angels — these all feel like collective nouns for groups of animals or people, which is exactly what the puzzle wants you to think. That instinct is actually correct for these three, but be careful: a fourth word you might not expect completes that group, and a word you assume belongs there might not.
NET screams basketball — the thing the ball falls through when you score. That sports-court image is the wrong reading here. NET has a much more tactile, hands-on meaning in a completely different outdoor context.
Connections Hints for May 7, 2026
Each category is independent. Reveal only what you need.
Yellow — Easiest
See hint
Basic equipment you would take to a riverbank
Think: Think: tackle box, rod, bait
See group name
FISHING GEAR
See words
Reveal word 1
FLYReveal word 2
HOOKReveal word 3
LINEReveal word 4
NETGreen — Moderate
See hint
Words that all mean a large crowd or great number
Think: Think: came in droves, a host of
See group name
MULTITUDE
See words
Reveal word 1
DROVEReveal word 2
HOSTReveal word 3
MASSReveal word 4
PACKBlue — Hard
See hint
Things a referee will call against you on the court
Think: Think: whistle, violation, foul
See group name
COMMIT A BASKETBALL INFRACTION
See words
Reveal word 1
CARRYReveal word 2
DOUBLE-DRIBBLEReveal word 3
GOALTENDReveal word 4
TRAVELPurple — Hardest
See hint
Things that move up or down when you press the right button
Think: Think: remote, panel, buttons
See group name
CONTROLLED WITH UP/DOWN BUTTONS
See words
Reveal word 1
CAR WINDOWReveal word 2
CHANNELReveal word 3
ELEVATORReveal word 4
VOLUMENYT Connections Answers for May 7, 2026
NYT Connections Answers Explained: May 7, 2026
FISHING GEAR
FLY, HOOK, LINE, and NET are all pieces of fishing equipment — the basic tools of the sport, each with a dominant non-fishing meaning that makes them easy to overlook.
- FLY
- In fly fishing, the fly is the artificial insect-like lure tied to the end of the line — it is the bait, and naming it is a core part of the sport's vocabulary.
- HOOK
- The fishing hook is the curved metal barb that catches the fish — the most iconic single piece of fishing tackle, though hook means many other things in everyday English.
- LINE
- The fishing line is the thin cord that runs from the rod down to the hook — without it nothing else works, making it essential gear.
- NET
- A fishing net is used to scoop fish out of the water once they are close — here it is physical tackle, not the basketball net many players will picture first.
MULTITUDE
DROVE, HOST, MASS, and PACK all mean a large number or crowd of something — each is a slightly old-fashioned or formal word for a multitude that still appears in common phrases.
- DROVE
- A drove is a large moving herd or crowd — we still say 'people came in droves' to mean they arrived in great numbers.
- HOST
- A host means a very large number — a host of problems, a heavenly host — an older usage that survives alongside the more familiar 'person who hosts a party' meaning.
- MASS
- A mass of people or things means a large undifferentiated crowd or quantity — the multitude sense, not the physics term or the church service.
- PACK
- A pack is a group of animals or people moving together — a pack of wolves, a pack of journalists — meaning a multitude, not a bag or a bundle.
COMMIT A BASKETBALL INFRACTION
CARRY, DOUBLE-DRIBBLE, GOALTEND, and TRAVEL are all illegal moves in basketball — specific violations that result in the referee stopping play and awarding possession to the other team.
- CARRY
- Carrying, also called palming, is when a player lets the ball rest in the palm of their hand during a dribble rather than keeping it on their fingertips — an illegal move.
- DOUBLE-DRIBBLE
- A double-dribble violation is called when a player dribbles with both hands at the same time, or stops dribbling and then starts again — both are illegal under basketball rules.
- GOALTEND
- Goaltending means illegally interfering with a shot while the ball is on its downward arc toward the basket, or while it is on or directly above the rim — the defending player is not allowed to touch it at that point.
- TRAVEL
- Traveling is called when a player takes too many steps — more than two — without dribbling the ball, giving them an unfair movement advantage — one of the most commonly called violations in the game.
CONTROLLED WITH UP/DOWN BUTTONS
CAR WINDOW, CHANNEL, ELEVATOR, and VOLUME are all things you raise or lower by pressing up or down buttons — each one moves or changes in a single vertical or incremental direction.
- CAR WINDOW
- An electric car window goes up or down when you press the corresponding button on the door panel — the up/down button control is the defining feature here.
- CHANNEL
- You change the TV channel up or down using the channel buttons on a remote control — flipping up through the numbers or down through them.
- ELEVATOR
- An elevator moves up or down between floors when you press the floor button or the up/down call button — the most literal example in the group.
- VOLUME
- The volume on any audio device — a TV, a phone, a speaker — goes up or down when you press the volume buttons, making it a classic up/down button control.
