NYT Connections Hints & Answers — Wednesday, September 9, 2026 (#1186)
Puzzle #1186. Start with a gentle nudge and work down — the full answers are at the bottom, hidden until you ask for them.
Just tell me the answer
The NYT Connections answer for Wednesday, September 9, 2026 (puzzle #1186) is: YELLOW — HARD TO UNDERSTAND: BEWILDERING, ESOTERIC, INCOMPREHENSIBLE, OPAQUE. GREEN — WORDS WITH "SMALL" PREFIXES: MICROBREWERY, MINIVAN, NANOTECHNOLOGY, PICOSECOND. BLUE — HORROR MOVIES: ARACHNOPHOBIA, HALLOWEEN, IT, SAW. PURPLE — WORDS BEFORE "FORCE": BRUTE, ELECTROMAGNETIC, G, TASK.
Today's 16 words
The grid exactly as NYT laid it out for Wednesday, September 9, 2026. Nothing below this point is spoiled until you open it.
INCOMPREHENSIBLE
ELECTROMAGNETIC
NANOTECHNOLOGY
ARACHNOPHOBIA
MICROBREWERY
BEWILDERING
PICOSECOND
HALLOWEEN
ESOTERIC
MINIVAN
OPAQUE
BRUTE
TASK
SAW
IT
G
How hard is Connections #1186?
Easy30/100
• Four clean, meaning-based categories with little overlap.
Where to start: Every category here is meaning-based, so group by topic first and use the four-per-group constraint to settle any word that could go two ways.
Connections hints for Wednesday, September 9, 2026
Four levels, each giving away a little more. Open only as many as you need.
yellow(the most straightforward group — start here) A group united by what they ARE, not by wordplay — think about understand.
green(a little trickier, but still direct) A group united by what they ARE, not by wordplay — think about prefixes.
blue(where the misdirection usually starts) A group united by what they ARE, not by wordplay — think about movies.
purple(the wordplay group, and almost always the last to fall) A group united by what they ARE, not by wordplay — think about force.
yellow4 things that belong to the same real-world set — the link is meaning, not spelling.
green4 things that belong to the same real-world set — the link is meaning, not spelling.
blue4 things that belong to the same real-world set — the link is meaning, not spelling.
purple4 things that belong to the same real-world set — the link is meaning, not spelling.
yellowOne member is
greenOne member is
blueOne member is
purpleOne member is
yellow
green
blue
purple
NYT Connections answers for Wednesday, September 9, 2026
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Common questions
What is the NYT Connections answer for Wednesday, September 9, 2026?
The NYT Connections answer for Wednesday, September 9, 2026 (puzzle #1186) is: YELLOW — HARD TO UNDERSTAND: BEWILDERING, ESOTERIC, INCOMPREHENSIBLE, OPAQUE. GREEN — WORDS WITH "SMALL" PREFIXES: MICROBREWERY, MINIVAN, NANOTECHNOLOGY, PICOSECOND. BLUE — HORROR MOVIES: ARACHNOPHOBIA, HALLOWEEN, IT, SAW. PURPLE — WORDS BEFORE "FORCE": BRUTE, ELECTROMAGNETIC, G, TASK.
What is the purple group in Connections #1186?
The purple (hardest) group is "WORDS BEFORE "FORCE"": BRUTE, ELECTROMAGNETIC, G, TASK.
What is the easiest group in today's Connections puzzle?
The yellow group is the most straightforward: "HARD TO UNDERSTAND" — BEWILDERING, ESOTERIC, INCOMPREHENSIBLE, OPAQUE. Solving it first removes four words from the grid.
What number is today's Connections puzzle?
Wednesday, September 9, 2026 is NYT Connections puzzle #1186. Connections launched on 12 June 2023 with puzzle #1, and a new puzzle is published every day.
What time does a new NYT Connections puzzle come out?
A new Connections puzzle unlocks at midnight in your own local time zone, so the changeover happens at a different moment around the world. The puzzle itself is the same for everyone on a given date.