Issue #1063 Sat 9 May
NYT Connections Hints & Answer — May 9, 2026
A patient Saturday grid — four sturdy groups, a couple of tiles that flirt with the wrong neighbours, and one finishing step that asks you to read the words a second time.
Word meanings & definitions
Stuck on a tricky Connections word? Click any tile below to see its dictionary entry — handy when a familiar word might be hiding a less-obvious meaning.
EPISODE
- n. one installment of a serial story
- n. an incident or notable event in a sequence
- n. (medical) a discrete bout of illness or symptoms
FRANCHISE
- n. a license to operate a business under a brand
- n. a connected media property and its spin-offs
- n. the right to vote in public elections
SEASON
- n. one of the four divisions of the year
- v. to flavor food with salt, spice, or herbs
- n. a block of related instalments released together
SERIES
- n. a number of similar things following each other
- n. a recurring televised show
- n. (math) the sum of a sequence of terms
BOA
- n. a large nonvenomous constricting snake
- n. a long fluffy scarf of feathers or fur
CHAIN
- n. a connected series of metal links
- n. a group of shops or hotels under one owner
- v. to fasten or restrain with linked metal
LANYARD
- n. a cord for carrying a whistle, key, or ID badge
- n. (nautical) a short rope used to secure rigging
TIE
- v. to fasten with a cord or knot
- n. a strip of fabric knotted under a shirt collar
- n. an equal score in a contest
- n. a bond or close connection between people
FRIENDSHIP BRACELET
- n. a handwoven thread wristband exchanged between close pals
MACRAMÉ
- n. a textile craft of decoratively interlacing cord by hand
QUIPU
- n. an Andean device of dyed cords used to record numbers and events
SHOELACES
- n. the cords threaded through eyelets to fasten footwear
CONVERSATION
- n. an informal spoken exchange between two or more people
- n. (computing) a continuous dialogue session with a system
PERIOD
- n. a stretch of time with a defined start and end
- n. a punctuation mark ending a sentence
- n. a school class slot in a daily timetable
- n. the monthly menstrual flow
PUFF
- n. a short sharp burst of breath or air
- n. a light hollow pastry shell
- v. to inflate or make swollen
- n. a soft applicator for face powder
THINK
- v. to use the mind to consider or reason
- v. to hold an opinion or belief
- n. (informal) an act of considering something
yellow group 7 hints
Yellow group hints
Scrolling a streaming home screen and noticing how the same show gets sliced and labelled at every scale, from one night's watch to a decade of spin-offs.
Entertainment industry — the vocabulary studios and viewers use to talk about scripted content.
Category-membership: every entry names a slot on the same hierarchy.
Specifically, the four sit on one ordered scale of size, each one nesting inside the next as the scope widens.
UNITS OF TV PROGRAMS
One is EPISODE — the smallest standalone chunk on the list.
EPISODE · FRANCHISE · SEASON · SERIES
green group 7 hints
Green group hints
A coat-rack after a long evening — feathers, leather, fabric, metal, all hanging at roughly the same height.
Fashion and accessories — items you put on with an outfit.
Category-membership: every entry is an item that occupies the same wardrobe slot.
Specifically, the four come from very different fabric and material traditions but share the same anatomical slot on the body.
THINGS WORN AROUND THE NECK
One is LANYARD — the kind you get on a first day to clip your badge to.
BOA · CHAIN · LANYARD · TIE
blue group 7 hints
Blue group hints
A summer-camp porch table — fingers patiently looping cord over cord, four entries that exist because someone twisted lengths of fibre around each other.
Craft and material culture — objects built from a single repeated handmade technique.
Category-membership: every entry is an example of the same construction method.
Specifically, the four come from very different cultural contexts but all emerged from the same patient hand technique.
STRINGS TIED IN KNOTS
One is QUIPU — the Inca recording device made of knotted cords.
FRIENDSHIP BRACELET · MACRAMÉ · QUIPU · SHOELACES
violet group 7 hints
Violet group hints
Four words that feel half-finished — each one waiting on the same small partner to land as a familiar two-word phrase.
Wordplay group — compound phrases built around a shared partner word.
Compound completions: every entry pairs with the same word to form a stock English phrase.
Specifically, the shared word always lands on the right; the four resulting phrases roam across very different corners of everyday English.
___ PIECE
One is CONVERSATION — as in CONVERSATION PIECE.
CONVERSATION · PERIOD · PUFF · THINK
Spoiler zone
Complete Connections answer
Open only the solution you want to see. Each answer stays hidden until you choose to reveal it.
-
Reveal the yellow group
UNITS OF TV PROGRAMSEPISODE · FRANCHISE · SEASON · SERIES
-
Reveal the green group
THINGS WORN AROUND THE NECKBOA · CHAIN · LANYARD · TIE
-
Reveal the blue group
STRINGS TIED IN KNOTSFRIENDSHIP BRACELET · MACRAMÉ · QUIPU · SHOELACES
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Reveal the violet group
___ PIECECONVERSATION · PERIOD · PUFF · THINK
Verified solution for .
Frequently asked questions
Spoiler-free help for Connections on May 9, 2026. Every answer below helps you along without giving the game away — ready to see the full solution? See the complete Connections answer for May 9, 2026, or browse every Connections puzzle in the archive.
How hard is NYT Connections on May 9, 2026?
NYT Connections on May 9, 2026 rates 3 out of 4 on our difficulty scale — a tougher-than-average puzzle. As always you sort sixteen words into four colour-coded groups, and our hints tease what links each group without ever naming the words.
What's a spoiler-free hint for NYT Connections on May 9, 2026?
The hint ladder above starts with a one-line vibe for each of the four groups, then adds the connecting idea, then the wording of each category. You climb only as far as you need, and no grouped words are shown until the final reveal.
How many groups are in NYT Connections #1063?
Four groups of four, ordered from the gentlest to the trickiest. For the categories and the sixteen words themselves, open the answer section on this page — the hints here keep them hidden.
Today
- Difficulty
- Stiff
- At a glance
- 4 groups · 16 words
Today on Cluestand
Today
- Difficulty
- Stiff
- At a glance
- 4 groups · 16 words