NYT Connections Today: Hints and Answers for August 20, 2026

Welcome back, puzzle lovers! Today’s NYT Connections felt like a culinary trip around the world that ended in a typography class. While some of the categories were straightforward slices of life, others required a keen eye for linguistics and wordplay.

If you are looking for a few nudges or the full answer for 2026-08-20, you’ve come to the right place. Let’s break down the groupings and see how Wyna Liu challenged us today.

Today's NYT Connections Hint

Before we reveal the groups, here are a few clues to get your brain moving:

1. Yellow Group Hint: Think about what you might order on a Friday night when you don't feel like cooking.
2. Green Group Hint: These are all things that identify you or a specific object using digits.
3. Blue Group Hint: Look closely at small punctuation marks that look like little hooks or tails.
4. Purple Group Hint: Try reading just the first three to six letters of these words. They have something in common with the lunar calendar.

Yellow: Kinds of Pizza

This category was a delicious way to start the puzzle. Most of these are staples at any local pizzeria, though one might be more common in Italy than in your local mall.

• DIAVOLA: A spicy Italian pizza usually topped with salami and chili flakes.
• HAWAIIAN: The controversial classic featuring ham and pineapple.
• MEAT LOVERS: A hearty option packed with pepperoni, sausage, and bacon.
• WHITE: A pizza made without tomato sauce, usually featuring ricotta and mozzarella.

Green: Kinds of Numbers

These are all nouns that we commonly associate with the word "Number." They are identifiers used in science, bureaucracy, and daily communication.

• ATOMIC: Used to identify elements on the periodic table.
• SERIAL: A unique identifier for manufactured goods.
• SOCIAL SECURITY: A nine-digit identifier used in the U.S.
• TELEPHONE: The digits you dial to reach someone.

Blue: Similarly Shaped Typographical Marks

This was the "trickier" category of the day. If you aren't a grammar nerd or a designer, a couple of these terms might have been new to you. All of these marks share a similar curved or hooked shape.

• APOSTROPHE: Used for possessives or contractions (').
• CEDILLA: The little hook found under letters like the 'ç' in "façade."
• COMMA: The standard pause mark in a sentence (,).
• OKINA: A mark used in Polynesian languages (like Hawaiian) to represent a glottal stop, which looks like an inverted apostrophe.

Purple: Starting with Chinese Zodiac Animals

The "Purple" category is famously the most abstract. Today, it required you to look at the beginning of each word to find a hidden animal from the Chinese Zodiac.

• DRAGONFLY: Starts with DRAGON.
• OXFORD: Starts with OX.
• PIGMENT: Starts with PIG.
• RATCHET: Starts with RAT.

Summary of the Answer for 2026-08-20

If you just want to see the groups as they appeared in the game:

• KINDS OF PIZZA: Diavola, Hawaiian, Meat Lovers, White
• KINDS OF NUMBERS: Atomic, Serial, Social Security, Telephone
• SIMILARLY SHAPED TYPOGRAPHICAL MARKS: Apostrophe, Cedilla, Comma, Okina
• STARTING WITH CHINESE ZODIAC ANIMALS: Dragonfly, Oxford, Pigment, Ratchet

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I play NYT Connections?

In Connections, you are presented with 16 words. Your goal is to organize them into four groups of four based on a common theme. Each group is color-coded by difficulty: Yellow (easiest), Green, Blue, and Purple (trickiest).

When does the new NYT Connections puzzle come out?

The puzzle resets daily at midnight in your local time zone.

What happens if I make four mistakes?

If you exhaust your four "lives," the game ends and the correct categories are revealed. You can only play the official puzzle once per day.

Is there a trick to finding the Purple category?

The Purple group often involves wordplay, homophones, or words that share a prefix/suffix. If you have four words left that don't seem to have a logical connection at first glance, try splitting the words in half or saying them out loud!