NYT Connections — August 17, 2026

Today's board moves from apps you'd open for a video meeting, to tools built into a spreadsheet, to first names of legendary country singers, to words that begin with the name of a common household pet.

Yellow (easiest): each word or phrase names software you'd use to hop on a face-to-face call with coworkers.

Green: these are all tools or building blocks you'd use inside a spreadsheet to automate or calculate something.

Blue: each is the first name of a country music icon known well enough to go by that name alone.

Purple (hardest): read just the first few letters of each word and you'll find a common household pet hiding at the start.