September 5, 2026#1182archive

NYT Connections — September 5, 2026

Hints — one at a time

Hint 1 of 5

Today's board moves from words for shaky, unbalanced movement, to sounds birds make, to words that pair with "head," and finally to desserts with their last letter chopped off.

Hint 2 of 5

Yellow (easiest): each of these describes moving in a wobbly, unsteady way.

Hint 3 of 5

Green: each of these is a sound associated with a particular kind of bird.

Hint 4 of 5

Blue: each of these word combines with "head" to form a compound word or phrase.

Hint 5 of 5

Purple (hardest): drop the final letter from each of these and you get the name of a dessert.

The answer — spoilers!

Reveal the full answer

yellow
Move Unsteadily
SWAY · TODDLE · TOTTER · WOBBLE
green
Bird Onomatopoeia
COO · GOBBLE · HONK · WARBLE
blue
___Head
BOBBLE · HAMMER · JUG · SLEEPY
purple
Desserts Minus Last Letter
COBBLE · PI · TAR · TORT

This puzzle by the numbers

Hardest group (purple): Desserts Minus Last Letter
Longest word on the board: TODDLE

Counted from our own archive of NYT Connections answers — not published anywhere else.

A solved Connections-style board: sixteen word tiles sorted into four coloured rows of four — fruits, gemstones, instruments and planets — A solved Connections grid: four groups of four, one colour each. Example board, not today’s puzzle.