Issue #1071 Sun 17 May
NYT Connections Hints & Answer — May 17, 2026
A grid that rewards second-guessing — several tiles sit comfortably in more than one bucket until you find the angle. Sort the obvious pair last, not first.
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.
DUCT
- n. a tube or channel for air, fluid, or cables
- n. (anatomy) a vessel carrying a bodily secretion
LINE
- n. a long narrow mark or stroke
- n. a length of cord, wire, or rope
- v. to cover the inner surface of something
- n. a row of waiting people
MAIN
- adj. chief or most important
- n. a principal channel carrying water or gas
- n. (poetic) the open sea
PIPE
- n. a hollow cylinder conveying fluids
- n. a device for smoking tobacco
- n. a tubular wind instrument
- v. to lead or convey by tube
FLEECE
- n. the woolly coat of a sheep
- n. a soft napped synthetic fabric
- v. to overcharge or defraud
HOSE
- n. a flexible pipe for conveying water
- n. stockings or tight-fitting leg coverings
- v. to spray or drench with water
- v. (slang) to cheat someone
SQUEEZE
- v. to press firmly together
- v. to extract by applying pressure
- n. a difficult financial situation
- n. (informal) a romantic partner
STIFF
- adj. rigid and not easily bent
- adj. formal or stilted in manner
- v. to cheat out of payment owed
- n. (slang) a corpse
BOIL
- v. to heat a liquid until it bubbles
- v. to cook food in bubbling water
- n. an inflamed pus-filled skin swelling
POUR
- v. to send a stream flowing from a container
- v. to rain heavily
- v. to move in a large continuous flow
STEEP
- adj. rising or falling sharply
- v. to soak in liquid to extract flavour
- adj. (informal) unreasonably costly
STRAIN
- v. to filter solids out of a liquid
- n. severe stress or pressure
- v. to injure by overexertion
- n. a breed or variety of organism
GRADE
- n. a level, rank, or degree
- n. a mark awarded for academic work
- v. to sort items by quality
- n. the gradient of a slope
GRAMMAR
- n. the structural rules of a language
- n. a textbook on language rules
HIGH
- adj. extending far upward
- adj. (informal) intoxicated by a drug
- n. a peak or maximum level
- adj. elevated in pitch
PRIMARY
- adj. first in rank or importance
- n. a preliminary election to choose candidates
- adj. (of a colour) not formed by mixing others
yellow group 7 hints
Yellow group hints
Behind the drywall and under the floorboards, something hidden keeps water and air quietly moving from one room to the next.
Building and utility infrastructure — the parts you never see.
Synonyms — all four words point at the same kind of thing.
Each answer is a short, everyday noun naming a single piece of physical hardware, never an action.
CONDUIT
One is PIPE.
DUCT · LINE · MAIN · PIPE
green group 7 hints
Green group hints
You walk away from the used-car lot patting an empty pocket, certain that grin cost you a month's pay.
All four are informal English verbs.
Synonyms — the four words all mean roughly the same thing.
Each is a single colloquial verb that also carries a perfectly innocent, unrelated literal meaning.
SWINDLE
One is FLEECE — yes, the same word as the wool coat on a sheep.
FLEECE · HOSE · SQUEEZE · STIFF
blue group 7 hints
Blue group hints
There's a quiet satisfaction in a small morning chore done step by step — never skipping ahead, never rushing, the same calm routine every day.
All four are common, everyday verbs describing simple physical actions.
Category-membership — the four verbs all belong to one single shared activity.
Read in input order, they're consecutive stages of one repeated routine: each action has to finish before the next can begin.
TEA-MAKING VERBS
One of them is STEEP — the long, patient wait that sits in the middle.
BOIL · POUR · STEEP · STRAIN
violet group 7 hints
Violet group hints
Each of these feels like the front half of a phrase — say one and your mouth wants to keep going to finish it.
A wordplay group — what these words actually mean barely matters here.
Compound completions: each one pairs with a single shared word to form a familiar two-word term.
All four are modifiers, and the very same word lands right after each of them — it never changes across the four.
"SCHOOL" MODIFIERS
One is PRIMARY.
GRADE · GRAMMAR · HIGH · PRIMARY
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
CONDUITDUCT · LINE · MAIN · PIPE
-
Reveal the green group
SWINDLEFLEECE · HOSE · SQUEEZE · STIFF
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Reveal the blue group
TEA-MAKING VERBSBOIL · POUR · STEEP · STRAIN
-
Reveal the violet group
"SCHOOL" MODIFIERSGRADE · GRAMMAR · HIGH · PRIMARY
Verified solution for .
Frequently asked questions
Spoiler-free help for Connections on May 17, 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 17, 2026, or browse every Connections puzzle in the archive.
How hard is NYT Connections on May 17, 2026?
NYT Connections on May 17, 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 17, 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 #1071?
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