NYT Connections Hints, Answers & Clues -
NYT Connections #1193 Tip
Every word here is wearing at least two disguises at once.
What Makes NYT Connections #1193 Tricky?
FRANK-N-FURTER, PENNYWISE, MARIGOLD, and BORAT sit in the same grid as WADSWORTH, QUARTERBACK, and ST. VINCENT — a collision of horror clowns, Rocky Horror characters, flowers, and what might be proper names with no obvious common ground.
The editor is hiding smaller words inside larger ones — a coin, a metal, or a type of sausage buried inside each entry — and the surface meaning of every phrase is a deliberate decoy designed to pull you away from the hidden word.
This one is genuinely difficult: one group may click quickly once you spot the buried-word trick, but the other three require you to know specific proper nouns from poetry, film, and geography, and the overlapping wordplay means a word that looks like it belongs to one hidden-word group almost certainly belongs to another.
Connections Hints for Every Word in the September 16, 2026 Puzzle
FRANK-N-FURTER
Connections hint for FRANK-N-FURTER
The flamboyant scientist from The Rocky Horror Picture Show — but look past the character and find the sausage name hiding inside with one extra letter.
LATIN
Connections hint for LATIN
The classical language of ancient Rome — and it ends with TIN, a metal element on the periodic table.
CLINK
Connections hint for CLINK
British slang for jail or prison — but a type of sausage is hiding inside this word with one letter added.
PENNYWISE
Connections hint for PENNYWISE
The shape-shifting killer clown from Stephen King's IT — it starts with PENNY, a U.S. coin.
WADSWORTH
Connections hint for WADSWORTH
A surname that looks like it could belong to a butler or a country house — it is actually the middle name of a famous American poet.
NICKELODEON
Connections hint for NICKELODEON
The children's television and entertainment network — it starts with NICKEL, a U.S. coin.
BORAT
Connections hint for BORAT
The fictional Kazakh journalist played by Sacha Baron Cohen — a sausage name plus one extra letter is hiding inside.
LONG JOHN SILVER
Connections hint for LONG JOHN SILVER
The peg-legged pirate from Treasure Island — the phrase ends with SILVER, a metal element.
ST. VINCENT
Connections hint for ST. VINCENT
A Caribbean island nation — also the middle name of a celebrated American poet.
STEAM IRON
Connections hint for STEAM IRON
The household appliance used to press clothes — it ends with IRON, a metal element.
WIDENER
Connections hint for WIDENER
A surname associated with a famous library at Harvard — a sausage name plus one extra letter is concealed inside.
DIMENSION
Connections hint for DIMENSION
A measurement of space, as in length, width, or height — it starts with DIME, a U.S. coin.
QUARTERBACK
Connections hint for QUARTERBACK
The player who throws the ball in American football — it starts with QUARTER, a U.S. coin.
CARLOS
Connections hint for CARLOS
A common Spanish given name — here it is the middle name of a famous poet, not a standalone first name.
MARIGOLD
Connections hint for MARIGOLD
The bright orange-yellow garden flower — it ends with GOLD, a metal element.
BARRETT
Connections hint for BARRETT
A surname with many famous bearers — here it is the middle name of a celebrated poet, not a reference to any of those other associations.
Traps & Misdirects Hints for NYT Connections Puzzle (#1193)
FRANK-N-FURTER is a Rocky Horror character, CLINK is British slang for prison, and BORAT is a Sacha Baron Cohen film — three very different cultural references that seem to share nothing. The trap is assuming these are random pop-culture entries when each one actually contains a hidden sausage name plus an extra letter. They belong together for a wordplay reason, not a cultural one.
PENNYWISE is the killer clown from IT, NICKELODEON is the children's TV network, and QUARTERBACK is an American football position — three completely different domains that feel impossible to group. Each one, however, starts with the name of a U.S. coin, and that hidden coin is the actual connection, not anything about horror, television, or sport.
MARIGOLD is a flower, LONG JOHN SILVER is a pirate, and STEAM IRON is a household appliance — nothing links them on the surface. Each one ends with the name of a metal element from the periodic table, and that ending is what the puzzle is actually using, not the flower, the pirate, or the laundry tool.
BARRETT looks like a surname — a gun manufacturer, a politician, a common family name — and CARLOS looks like a Spanish given name. Neither reading is what is happening here. Both are middle names belonging to famous poets, and the puzzle is counting on you to treat them as standalone proper nouns rather than the middle portion of a full name.
Connections Hints for September 16, 2026
Yellow Connections Hints
Yellow Category Hint
Each phrase conceals a metal element at its end
Think: Think: periodic table, last syllable
Yellow Category Name
ENDING IN METAL ELEMENTS
Yellow Category Words
Reveal word 1
LATINReveal word 2
LONG JOHN SILVERReveal word 3
MARIGOLDReveal word 4
STEAM IRONGreen Connections Hints
Green Category Hint
Each word or phrase opens with the name of a U.S. coin
Think: Think: penny, nickel, dime, quarter
Green Category Name
STARTING WITH U.S. COINS
Green Category Words
Reveal word 1
DIMENSIONReveal word 2
NICKELODEONReveal word 3
PENNYWISEReveal word 4
QUARTERBACKBlue Connections Hints
Blue Category Hint
Famous poets share these as their middle names
Think: Think: full names, literary figures
Blue Category Name
POETS' MIDDLE NAMES
Blue Category Words
Reveal word 1
BARRETTReveal word 2
CARLOSReveal word 3
ST. VINCENTReveal word 4
WADSWORTHPurple Connections Hints
Purple Category Hint
A sausage variety is hidden inside each entry with one extra letter
Think: Think: brat, frank, link, wiener
Purple Category Name
SAUSAGES PLUS A LETTER
Purple Category Words
Reveal word 1
BORATReveal word 2
CLINKReveal word 3
FRANK-N-FURTERReveal word 4
WIDENERNYT Connections Answers for September 16, 2026
NYT Connections Answers Explained: September 16, 2026
ENDING IN METAL ELEMENTS
LATIN, LONG JOHN SILVER, MARIGOLD, and STEAM IRON each end with the name of a metal element from the periodic table — TIN, SILVER, GOLD, and IRON respectively.
- LATIN
- The word ends in TIN — a soft silvery metal, element number 50 on the periodic table, used in cans and alloys.
- LONG JOHN SILVER
- The famous pirate from Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island ends his name with SILVER — a precious metal element, number 47.
- MARIGOLD
- The garden flower's name ends with GOLD — the precious yellow metal, element number 79.
- STEAM IRON
- The clothes-pressing appliance ends with IRON — the common metal element, number 26, used in everything from cookware to construction.
STARTING WITH U.S. COINS
DIMENSION, NICKELODEON, PENNYWISE, and QUARTERBACK each begin with the name of a U.S. coin — DIME, NICKEL, PENNY, and QUARTER respectively.
- DIMENSION
- Starts with DIME — the ten-cent U.S. coin, the smallest in diameter of all current American coins.
- NICKELODEON
- The children's entertainment network starts with NICKEL — the five-cent U.S. coin, and the word nickelodeon originally referred to early cheap cinemas that charged a nickel for entry.
- PENNYWISE
- The terrifying clown from Stephen King's IT starts with PENNY — the one-cent U.S. coin, and the word pennywise means careful with small amounts of money.
- QUARTERBACK
- The American football position starts with QUARTER — the twenty-five-cent U.S. coin, worth a quarter of a dollar.
POETS' MIDDLE NAMES
BARRETT, CARLOS, ST. VINCENT, and WADSWORTH are the middle names of four famous poets — Elizabeth Barrett Browning, William Carlos Williams, St. Vincent Millay (Edna St. Vincent Millay), and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
- BARRETT
- The middle name of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, the Victorian poet famous for Sonnets from the Portuguese and the line 'How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.'
- CARLOS
- The middle name of William Carlos Williams, the American modernist poet known for poems like The Red Wheelbarrow and This Is Just to Say.
- ST. VINCENT
- Part of the full name of Edna St. Vincent Millay, the American poet and playwright who was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, in 1923.
- WADSWORTH
- The middle name of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the 19th-century American poet famous for The Song of Hiawatha and Paul Revere's Ride.
SAUSAGES PLUS A LETTER
BORAT, CLINK, FRANK-N-FURTER, and WIDENER each contain a type of sausage with one extra letter added — BRAT, LINK, FRANKFURTER, and WIENER respectively.
- BORAT
- The Sacha Baron Cohen character contains BRAT — a bratwurst, the German pork sausage — with the letter O inserted to make BORAT.
- CLINK
- The British slang word for prison contains LINK — a type of sausage, as in a link of sausage — with the letter C added at the front.
- FRANK-N-FURTER
- The Rocky Horror Picture Show character's name contains FRANKFURTER — the classic hot dog sausage — with the letter N inserted and the spelling rearranged around it.
- WIDENER
- The surname associated with Harvard's Widener Library contains WIENER — the Vienna-style sausage that gives us the word hot dog in American English — with the letter D inserted.
