NYT Connections Hints, Answers & Clues -
NYT Connections #1203 Tip
One category hides inside a phrase you use without thinking.
What Makes NYT Connections #1203 Tricky?
MINT, STARCH, GRAIN, and CUSTOMER land in the same grid alongside BURL, RINGS, SPRAY, and BEANS — a collision of laundry-room language, nature vocabulary, and words that feel like they wandered in from completely different conversations.
The editor's trick is that four words look like standalone nouns or verbs but are actually the second half of a fixed English expression — and nothing about the words themselves signals that they belong to a phrase rather than a literal category.
Harder than average — one group is immediately obvious once you spot the theme, one requires you to know a specific woodworking term, and the fourth group will only click if you can hear the invisible word sitting in front of each one.
Connections Hints for Every Word in the September 26, 2026 Puzzle
MINT
Connections hint for MINT
A breath-freshening herb and the flavour of most breath products — not the place where coins are made.
PRESS
Connections hint for PRESS
To iron or press a shirt flat at the laundry — not a newspaper or a weightlifting move.
GRAIN
Connections hint for GRAIN
The linear pattern of wood fibers running through a plank — also a unit of weight, but that is not what is happening here.
BEANS
Connections hint for BEANS
As in 'cool beans' — a slang expression of approval or enthusiasm, not the legume.
STARCH
Connections hint for STARCH
A stiffening agent sprayed onto dress shirts before ironing — not a food group or a dietary term.
CAT
Connections hint for CAT
As in 'cool cat' — an old jazz-era expression for someone effortlessly stylish, not the animal.
CUCUMBER
Connections hint for CUCUMBER
As in 'cool as a cucumber' — a fixed phrase meaning calm and unruffled under pressure, not the vegetable.
RINGS
Connections hint for RINGS
The concentric circles visible in a cross-section of a tree trunk, each one representing a year of growth.
GUM
Connections hint for GUM
Chewing gum — a breath freshener you chew rather than swallow or spray.
FOLD
Connections hint for FOLD
To fold a laundered shirt along its seams so it lies flat and neat — not a poker term here.
KNOTS
Connections hint for KNOTS
Dense, dark, circular imperfections in wood where a branch once grew out from the trunk.
CUSTOMER
Connections hint for CUSTOMER
As in 'cool customer' — an expression for someone who stays composed and unflappable in difficult situations.
WASH
Connections hint for WASH
To clean a shirt with water and detergent — the first step in the laundry process.
MOUTHWASH
Connections hint for MOUTHWASH
A liquid you swish around your mouth to kill bacteria and freshen breath — the most literal word in its group.
BURL
Connections hint for BURL
A rounded, knotty growth on the outside of a tree trunk that produces highly prized swirling wood grain when sliced — a specialist woodworking term.
SPRAY
Connections hint for SPRAY
A breath-freshening product dispensed as a fine mist directly into the mouth.
Traps & Misdirects Hints for NYT Connections Puzzle (#1203)
MINT is a breath freshener, GUM is a breath freshener, and STARCH is a white powdery substance — the visual similarity to something you might chew or swallow makes STARCH feel like it belongs with the other two. That grouping is wrong. STARCH belongs to a completely different category and has nothing to do with freshening breath.
RINGS, KNOTS, and GRAIN are all genuine features of wood — tree rings mark age, knots are where branches grew, and grain describes the pattern of fibers — so pulling all three together feels safe. Be careful: all three are real wood features, but the puzzle has a fourth wood word that is much less familiar, and if you misidentify it you will strand one of these three in the wrong group.
PRESS and FOLD are both things you do to laundry, but they are also both poker terms — you press a bet, you fold a hand — and that shared gambling sense could pull them toward each other or toward other words in the grid. Neither of them belongs in a poker category here; both are firmly in the laundry group.
CUSTOMER looks like it belongs with a retail or service category, BEANS sounds like food, CAT sounds like an animal, and CUCUMBER sounds like a vegetable — nothing obviously links them as a group. Each of these words is the second word in a two-word expression that starts with the same adjective, and that invisible shared word is the only thing connecting them.
Connections Hints for September 26, 2026
Yellow Connections Hints
Yellow Category Hint
Products you use to make your breath smell better
Think: Think: drugstore oral care aisle
Yellow Category Name
BREATH FRESHENERS
Yellow Category Words
Reveal word 1
GUMReveal word 2
MINTReveal word 3
MOUTHWASHReveal word 4
SPRAYGreen Connections Hints
Green Category Hint
Steps or treatments a dress shirt goes through at the dry cleaner
Think: Think: clean, crisp, pressed collar
Green Category Name
THINGS DONE TO A DRESS SHIRT AT THE LAUNDRY
Green Category Words
Reveal word 1
FOLDReveal word 2
PRESSReveal word 3
STARCHReveal word 4
WASHBlue Connections Hints
Blue Category Hint
Visible or structural characteristics found inside or on wood
Think: Think: cross-section of a tree trunk
Blue Category Name
FEATURES OF WOOD
Blue Category Words
Reveal word 1
BURLReveal word 2
GRAINReveal word 3
KNOTSReveal word 4
RINGSPurple Connections Hints
Purple Category Hint
Each word completes a two-word phrase meaning calm or excellent
Think: Think: what word goes before each
Purple Category Name
"COOL" THINGS, IN EXPRESSIONS
Purple Category Words
Reveal word 1
BEANSReveal word 2
CATReveal word 3
CUCUMBERReveal word 4
CUSTOMERNYT Connections Answers for September 26, 2026
NYT Connections Answers Explained: September 26, 2026
BREATH FRESHENERS
GUM, MINT, MOUTHWASH, and SPRAY are all products or formats used to freshen breath — each one a different delivery method for the same purpose.
- GUM
- Chewing gum is one of the most common breath fresheners — you chew it and the mint or flavour masks bad breath.
- MINT
- A small mint sweet — the kind you pop in your mouth after a meal — is a classic breath freshener, and mint flavour defines the whole category.
- MOUTHWASH
- A liquid antiseptic you swish around your mouth to kill bacteria and leave breath smelling fresh — the most clinical product in the group.
- SPRAY
- A breath spray is a small pocket bottle that delivers a fine mist of breath-freshening liquid directly into the mouth.
THINGS DONE TO A DRESS SHIRT AT THE LAUNDRY
FOLD, PRESS, STARCH, and WASH are all things done to a dress shirt during professional laundering — in roughly the order they happen.
- FOLD
- After pressing, a laundered shirt is folded along precise lines so it lies flat and neat in its packaging.
- PRESS
- To press a shirt is to iron it flat using heat and pressure, removing all creases — a core step in professional laundering.
- STARCH
- Starch is a stiffening agent applied to a dress shirt before pressing so the collar and cuffs hold their shape.
- WASH
- The first step — cleaning the shirt with water and detergent to remove dirt and sweat before any other treatment.
FEATURES OF WOOD
BURL, GRAIN, KNOTS, and RINGS are all visible features or structural characteristics found in wood — things a carpenter or woodworker would identify by name.
- BURL
- A burl is a rounded, knotty outgrowth on a tree trunk caused by stress or injury — when sliced, it reveals a highly prized swirling grain pattern used in fine furniture.
- GRAIN
- The grain of wood is the linear pattern formed by the direction and arrangement of wood fibers — straight grain is easy to work with, wild grain is decorative.
- KNOTS
- Knots are dense, circular imperfections in a plank of wood where a branch once grew out from the trunk — they are harder than the surrounding wood and can be decorative or structural weaknesses.
- RINGS
- Tree rings are the concentric circles visible in a cross-section of a trunk — each ring represents one year of growth, so counting them tells you the tree's age.
"COOL" THINGS, IN EXPRESSIONS
BEANS, CAT, CUCUMBER, and CUSTOMER all complete a fixed English expression when the word 'cool' is placed before them — cool beans, cool cat, cool as a cucumber, and cool customer.
- BEANS
- 'Cool beans' is a slang expression of enthusiastic approval — roughly equivalent to 'great' or 'awesome' — with no literal connection to the vegetable.
- CAT
- 'Cool cat' is a jazz-era expression for someone who is effortlessly stylish and unruffled — the word cat here means a hip, admirable person.
- CUCUMBER
- 'Cool as a cucumber' is a fixed simile meaning calm and composed under pressure — cucumbers stay cool inside even in warm conditions, which is the origin of the phrase.
- CUSTOMER
- 'Cool customer' is an expression for someone who remains composed and unflappable in difficult or high-pressure situations — customer here means a person of a particular type.
