Puzzle Overview
Review hints and answers for NYT Connections puzzle No. 1,221 on Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026.
Today’s Connections hints
The groupings in today’s Connections puzzle range from the straightforward yellow group to the more challenging purple group.
Yellow group hint: What this line is supposed to offer readers.
Green group hint: Wimbledon.
Blue group hint: I need a hero.
Purple group hint: "I smell the blood of an Englishman."
Solutions
Yellow group: Hint.
Green group: Tennis shots.
Blue group: Superheroes, with “The.”
Purple group: Starting with “fee, fi, fo, fum.”
CNET publishes daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.
The yellow words in today’s Connections
The theme is hint.
The four answers are flicker, suggestion, trace and whiff.
The green words in today’s Connections
The theme is tennis shots.
The four answers are serve, slice, smash and volley.
The blue words in today’s Connections
The theme is superheroes, with “The.”
The four answers are Flash, Hulk, Punisher and Thing.
The purple words in today’s Connections
The theme is starting with “fee, fi, fo, fum.”
The four answers are feed, fiery, foment and fumble.
Gameplay Mechanics
In Connections, players examine a grid of 16 words and select four words that share a common connection, repeating this process four times until all words are grouped. Puzzle editor Wyna Liu deliberately includes overlapping categories designed to mislead initial assumptions.
After solving, players can use analytical tools provided by the platform to review performance metrics and completion streaks.
