NYT Connections — September 26, 2026
Hints — one at a time
Hint 1 of 5
Today's board moves from things that freshen your breath, to what happens to a dress shirt at the dry cleaner, to characteristics you'd notice in a piece of wood, and finally to things that pair with "cool" in common expressions.
Hint 2 of 5
Yellow (easiest): each of these helps get rid of bad breath.
Hint 3 of 5
Green: each of these is something a laundry service does to a dress shirt.
Hint 4 of 5
Blue: each of these is a natural characteristic you'd find in wood grain or a tree trunk.
Hint 5 of 5
Purple (hardest): each of these word follows "cool" in a phrase describing someone unfazed or something great — cool beans, a cool cat, cool as a cucumber, a cool customer.
The answer — spoilers!
Reveal the full answer
Breath Fresheners
GUM · MINT · MOUTHWASH · SPRAY
Things Done To A Dress Shirt At The Laundry
FOLD · PRESS · STARCH · WASH
Features Of Wood
BURL · GRAIN · KNOTS · RINGS
"Cool" Things, In Expressions
BEANS · CAT · CUCUMBER · CUSTOMER
This puzzle by the numbers
- "Cool" Things, In Expressions
- MOUTHWASH
Counted from our own archive of NYT Connections answers — not published anywhere else.
