The Thursday edition of NYT Connections arrives with puzzle #1166, serving up a grid that rewards menu instincts, visual attention, and a sharp eye for hidden beginnings.
What Makes Connections Tick
For newcomers, NYT Connections presents 16 words that must be sorted into four thematic groups of four. The twist? You're limited to four mistakes, and the color-coded difficulty system (yellow being easiest, purple being trickiest) means surface-level connections often mislead.
Since its June 2023 launch, Connections has carved out its niche in the Times' puzzle ecosystem, standing alongside Wordle and the crossword as a daily ritual for millions of players worldwide. The game's genius lies in its red herrings, words that could fit multiple categories but belong in only one.
Today's Grid at a Glance
Here are the 16 words staring back at you in puzzle #1166:
TELEPHONE | APOSTROPHE | OXFORD | SERIAL
HAWAIIAN | OKINA | RATCHET | COMMA
WHITE | PIGMENT | ATOMIC | DRAGONFLY
DIAVOLA | CEDILLA | MEAT LOVERS | SOCIAL SECURITY
A seemingly random collection that somehow connects into four perfect categories.
Strategic Hints (No Spoilers Yet)
Yellow Category Nudge: Think about choices that could appear together on a casual dinner menu.
Green Category Clue: Look for labels used to identify, contact, catalog, or describe something precisely.
Blue Category Hint: Pay attention to visual form rather than meaning, especially small marks that sit around letters.
Purple Category Teaser: Try splitting longer entries near the front, then compare their short openings through a shared cultural system.
The Full Solutions
Last chance to solve independently: answers below
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Yellow (Kinds Of Pizza): DIAVOLA, HAWAIIAN, MEAT LOVERS, WHITE
DIAVOLA, HAWAIIAN, MEAT LOVERS, and WHITE are all KINDS OF PIZZA, covering spicy, sweet-savory, meat-heavy, and sauce-defined menu styles.
HAWAIIAN creates a genuine cross-grid distraction with OKINA, a mark used in writing Hawaiian, while WHITE can also pull attention toward PIGMENT.
Green (Kinds Of Numbers): ATOMIC, SERIAL, SOCIAL SECURITY, TELEPHONE
ATOMIC, SERIAL, SOCIAL SECURITY, and TELEPHONE are KINDS OF NUMBERS. Each forms a standard phrase by adding “number”: atomic number, serial number, Social Security number, and telephone number.
SERIAL can look like an entertainment clue, and ATOMIC can suggest science vocabulary, but the repeated noun after all four entries locks the set together.
Blue (Similarly Shaped Typographical Marks): APOSTROPHE, CEDILLA, COMMA, OKINA
APOSTROPHE, CEDILLA, COMMA, and OKINA are SIMILARLY SHAPED TYPOGRAPHICAL MARKS. Their small curved or comma-like forms appear at different heights or positions around letters and text.
OKINA is the strongest red herring because its connection to Hawaiian writing points directly toward HAWAIIAN, even though the intended link is visual.
Purple (Starting With Chinese Zodiac Animals): DRAGONFLY, OXFORD, PIGMENT, RATCHET
DRAGONFLY, OXFORD, PIGMENT, and RATCHET are STARTING WITH CHINESE ZODIAC ANIMALS. Their openings are DRAGON, OX, PIG, and RAT, respectively.
The trick depends on unequal cuts, from the long DRAGON opening to the compact OX, PIG, and RAT fragments, so ordinary whole-word meanings conceal the pattern effectively.
The Verdict
The pizza set is the cleanest opening route, with four recognizable menu choices that can fall together quickly.
The real trap sits between HAWAIIAN and OKINA, reinforced by the tempting phrase WHITE PIGMENT, which makes two correct groups look less settled than they are.
The final streak test is the zodiac opening trick, particularly recognizing OX inside OXFORD and RAT inside RATCHET without treating the entries as complete animal names.
Reset and Repeat
Tomorrow brings another fresh grid, but today’s DRAGON, OX, PIG, and RAT openings are the trick worth carrying forward. Reset the board and come back ready to split suspiciously ordinary words in unexpected places.
For now, puzzle #1166 is solved. See you at midnight for the next round.
