NYT Connections hints and answers for Sunday, August 9 (game #1155)

A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Saturday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Saturday, August 8 (game #1154).

Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints.

What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc's Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Connections today (game #1155) - today's words

Today's NYT Connections words are…

SHIFT GEARS
JURY DUTY
SPACE OPERA
LABYRINTH
CAPS FOR SALE
ESCAPE ROOM
NEO-NOIR
COURSE-CORRECT
BAD DREAM
BUDDY COP
CORDUROY
CHANGE TACK
MADELINE
RECALIBRATE
SPAGHETTI WESTERN
GOODNIGHT MOON

NYT Connections today (game #1155) - hint #1 - group hints

What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?

YELLOW:Take a new path
GREEN:Bedtime stories
BLUE:Types of fims
PURPLE:In need of an exit strategy

Need more clues?

We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…

NYT Connections today (game #1155) - hint #2 - group answers

What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?

YELLOW:TAKE A DIFFERENT APPROACH
GREEN:CLASSIC CHILDREN'S BOOKS
BLUE:MOVIE SUBGENRES
PURPLE:THINGS PEOPLE TRY TO GET OUT OF

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Connections today (game #1155) - the answers

The answers to today's Connections, game #1155, are…

YELLOW: TAKE A DIFFERENT APPROACH:CHANGE TACK, COURSE-CORRECT, RECALIBRATE, SHIFT GEARS
GREEN: CLASSIC CHILDREN'S BOOKS:CAPS FOR SALE, CORDUROY, GOODNIGHT MOON, MADELINE
BLUE: MOVIE SUBGENRES:BUDDY COP, NEO-NOIR, SPACE OPERA, SPAGHETTI WESTERN
PURPLE: THINGS PEOPLE TRY TO GET OUT OF:BAD DREAM, ESCAPE ROOM, JURY DUTY, LABYRINTH
My rating:Easy
My score:Perfect

Everyone’s knows that GOODNIGHT MOON is one of a handful of CLASSIC CHILDREN’S BOOKS (the “bowl full of mush” always puzzled me) and I was sure MADELINE was too, but I couldn’t see any others — so decided to put this possible group to one side. In fact, you could say I decided to TAKE A DIFFERENT APPROACH.

After landing the yellow group I decided that SPACE OPERA and SPAGHETTI WESTERN belonged together and guessed that NEO-NOIR and BUDDY COP could also be labeled as MOVIE SUBGENRES.

With eight tiles left the titles of children’s books were not popping out for me, so I took a risk connecting things that sounded like you could get trapped in and added JURY DUTY as a random fourth tile.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Saturday, August 8, 2026, game #1154)

YELLOW: QUAINT EXPRESSIONS OF EXCITEMENT:HOT DOG, HURRAH, WHOOPEE, YAHOO
GREEN: CONVEY:COUCH, EXPRESS, FRAME, PHRASE
BLUE: WORDS ABBREVIATED WITH LETTERS AS HOMOPHONES:CUTIE, EASY, EFFECTS, I OWE YOU
PURPLE: SAFETY _____:BELT, GOGGLES, PIN, RAZOR

What is NYT Connections?

NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.

On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.

It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.

It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

Johnny is a freelance pop culture journalist who has been writing about the internet, music, football and famous people since the iPhone was just a twinkle in Steve Jobs' eye. Previously known by the pseudonym the Pop Detective, his journalistic career began making up stories about Madonna's addiction to sausage rolls (this is not true by the way). A man of few talents, his career is rich and various and includes the highs of interviewing Elton John and Blur; and the lows of interviewing Right Said Fred, appearing on a Channel 5 documentary about Peter Kay, and fact-checking the instruction manual for a German cooker. Somehow still affording to live in North London he is at his happiest riding his bicycle and shouting at pigeons.