Issue #1075 Thu 21 May
NYT Connections Hints & Answer — May 21, 2026
A homey, kitchen-warm grid today. Three groups land on familiar ground; the fourth asks you to fill in a blank and trust your ear over your eye.
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.
CHESS
- n. a strategy board game played on 64 squares
- n. a rich pie of sugar, butter, and eggs
PECAN
- n. a smooth brown edible nut
- n. the hickory tree that bears this nut
- n. a sweet pie of nuts and corn syrup
PUMPKIN
- n. a large round orange gourd
- n. (informal) an affectionate term for someone
- n. a spiced pie made from squash purée
SHOOFLY
- n. a molasses and crumb pie
- n. a child's rocking toy shaped like an animal
CABOOSE
- n. the last car on a freight train
- n. (slang) a person's rear end
CAN
- n. a sealed metal container for food or drink
- v. to preserve food in airtight jars or tins
- v. (informal) to dismiss someone from a job
- n. (slang) the buttocks
MOON
- n. Earth's natural satellite
- v. to behave dreamily or listlessly
- v. to bare one's backside as a prank
PEACH
- n. a soft juicy stone fruit
- n. (informal) an outstandingly fine person or thing
- n. a pinkish-orange color
ADVANTAGE
- n. a favorable or beneficial circumstance
- n. the point scored just after a tied score in tennis
DEUCE
- n. a card or die face bearing two pips
- n. a tied score requiring two points to win the game
- n. (dated) the devil, used in mild oaths
FORTY
- n. the cardinal number after thirty-nine
- n. a player's third-point score in a tennis game
LOVE
- n. deep affection or attachment
- v. to feel deep affection for someone
- n. a score of zero in tennis
COLONEL
- n. a senior commissioned military officer
HONEY
- n. a sweet syrup made by bees
- n. a term of endearment for a loved one
- adj. of a warm golden-yellow color
HOT
- adj. having a high temperature
- adj. having a pungent, spicy flavor
- adj. (informal) currently very popular or in demand
YELLOW
- n. the bright color of lemons and egg yolks
- adj. (informal) cowardly or lacking courage
yellow group 7 hints
Yellow group hints
A fork hovers over a wedge of something sweet, cooling on a counter by an open kitchen window.
Food — specifically the dessert end of a menu.
Category-membership: the four are all examples of one specific thing.
Each answer is a single descriptive word; picture the same unstated noun placed after all four to finish each name.
KINDS OF PIES
One is PECAN.
CHESS · PECAN · PUMPKIN · SHOOFLY
green group 7 hints
Green group hints
The kind of cheeky joke that makes a kid snicker behind a cupped hand at the dinner table.
Human anatomy — but only its most casual, slangy side.
Category-membership: all four are informal nicknames for one and the same thing.
Each answer is also a perfectly ordinary singular noun; it's the shared slang sense, not the literal one, that ties them together.
THINGS ASSOCIATED WITH BUTTS
One of them is PEACH.
CABOOSE · CAN · MOON · PEACH
blue group 7 hints
Blue group hints
A hot afternoon on cropped grass, a hushed crowd, and a single voice calling out a running tally before every fresh serve.
All four belong to the world of competitive sport.
Category-membership — the four are all members of one fixed set of established terms.
The set is the official vocabulary of one racquet-and-net sport played on a court — but only one narrow slice of that vocabulary.
TENNIS SCORING TERMS
One of the four is DEUCE.
ADVANTAGE · DEUCE · FORTY · LOVE
violet group 7 hints
Violet group hints
That sharp little tingle at the back of your nose the instant a squeeze bottle hits a ballpark pretzel.
A wordplay group — the four words don't connect by meaning at all.
Compound completions — each word teams up with one same extra word to make a familiar phrase.
That shared word lands after each of the four, so every member becomes the first half of a two-word phrase.
___ MUSTARD
One of the four is COLONEL.
COLONEL · HONEY · HOT · YELLOW
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
KINDS OF PIESCHESS · PECAN · PUMPKIN · SHOOFLY
-
Reveal the green group
THINGS ASSOCIATED WITH BUTTSCABOOSE · CAN · MOON · PEACH
-
Reveal the blue group
TENNIS SCORING TERMSADVANTAGE · DEUCE · FORTY · LOVE
-
Reveal the violet group
___ MUSTARDCOLONEL · HONEY · HOT · YELLOW
Verified solution for .
Frequently asked questions
Spoiler-free help for Connections on May 21, 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 21, 2026, or browse every Connections puzzle in the archive.
How hard is NYT Connections on May 21, 2026?
NYT Connections on May 21, 2026 rates 2 out of 4 on our difficulty scale — a moderate challenge. 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 21, 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 #1075?
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
- Steady
- At a glance
- 4 groups · 16 words
Today on Cluestand
Today
- Difficulty
- Steady
- At a glance
- 4 groups · 16 words