Connections Hint and Answers Today (#1247, November 9, 2026)
Today’s NYT Connections puzzle, #1247 for Monday, November 9, 2026, is a board that rewards a sharp eye for word endings as much as a feeling for meaning. The easy group falls quickly once you spot the theme, the middle two reward anyone who thinks about clothes and everyday objects, and the purple group hides its answer in the very last syllables of the words. If you are stuck with mistakes running low, use the category hints below in order, from yellow to purple, and only scroll to the full answers when you are ready. Each hint spoils a little more than the one before it.
Today’s 16 words
Here is the full board for puzzle #1247:
- BOOTCUT
- CARD SHARK
- CON JOB
- DISTRESSED
- FLIMFLAM
- FUN SPONGE
- GAMMA RAY
- GRAPEFRUIT SPOON
- LOW-RISE
- MINT LEAF
- NAVY SEAL
- RIP-OFF
- SHELL GAME
- SKINNY
- STEAK KNIFE
- TAPE DISPENSER
Category hints (no answers yet)
Work through these in order. Yellow is the group Connections intends to be the most straightforward, and purple is the trickiest.
Yellow hint
Think of a dishonest trick, the kind of scheme where someone walks away with your money and you only realize it later. Four of today’s words name that kind of swindle, from a smooth-talking scam to a rigged street game.
Green hint
Walk into a jeans aisle and read the labels. Four of today’s words describe a pair of jeans, from the shape of the leg to the height of the waist to the way the fabric has been worn in.
Blue hint
Forget what the words mean and look at their edges instead. Four of today’s words are things with a toothed or jagged edge, from a kitchen tool to a leaf to a piece of office equipment.
Purple hint
Read the last word of each leftover phrase and think about the ocean. Four of today’s words each end with the name of a sea creature, even though the full phrases are about completely different things.
Spoiler warning
Stop here if you want to keep solving on your own. The complete solved board for Connections #1247, with all four category names and explanations, is directly below.
Today’s Connections answers
Yellow: DECEITFUL SCHEME
CON JOB, FLIMFLAM, RIP-OFF, SHELL GAME
Four ways to name a dishonest trick. A con job is a scam carried out with smooth talk, flimflam is a deceptive scheme, a rip-off is something sold for far more than it is worth, and a shell game is the classic street con where a ball is hidden under one of three shells. This is the group most players find first, and locking it in early clears the board nicely.
Green: JEANS DESCRIPTORS
BOOTCUT, DISTRESSED, LOW-RISE, SKINNY
Four ways to describe a pair of jeans. Bootcut jeans flare slightly at the ankle to fit over boots, distressed jeans are deliberately faded or frayed, low-rise jeans sit low on the hips, and skinny jeans are cut tight all the way down the leg. The trap here is CARD SHARK, which sounds like it could belong with the gambling words in yellow, but it belongs with the sea creatures in purple.
Blue: THINGS WITH SERRATED EDGES
GRAPEFRUIT SPOON, MINT LEAF, STEAK KNIFE, TAPE DISPENSER
Each of these has a toothed or jagged edge. A grapefruit spoon has a serrated tip for cutting citrus, a mint leaf has a toothed margin, a steak knife has a serrated blade, and a tape dispenser has a serrated metal strip for tearing tape. This group is sneakier than it looks because the four objects have almost nothing in common until you look at their edges.
Purple: ENDING IN SEA CREATURES
CARD SHARK, FUN SPONGE, GAMMA RAY, NAVY SEAL
The wordplay group. Each phrase ends with the name of a sea creature: CARD SHARK ends in shark, FUN SPONGE ends in sponge, GAMMA RAY ends in ray, and NAVY SEAL ends in seal. FUN SPONGE is the giveaway once you hear it, because a sponge is so plainly a sea creature that the pattern jumps out.
How the board tried to trick you
Today’s puzzle leans on words that point in two directions at once. CARD SHARK sits beside CON JOB, FLIMFLAM, and RIP-OFF and begs to be read as a gambling cheat, while it belongs with the sea creatures in purple. SHELL GAME looks like it could end in a sea creature too, since a shell comes from the sea, but a shell game is a con, so it belongs in yellow. GAMMA RAY looks like pure science until you hear the ray at the end, and NAVY SEAL reads as a military term until you notice the seal. The board rewards players who solve the yellow group early, because once CON JOB, FLIMFLAM, RIP-OFF, and SHELL GAME leave the grid, the sea creatures at the ends of the purple words stand out much more clearly.
Tips for tomorrow’s puzzle
- Say the words out loud. Purple groups often hide sounds and word beginnings that your eyes skip over.
- Look for words that feel incomplete. A word like KORN, sitting oddly on the board, is often a familiar word with one letter changed.
- Hold your guesses. You only get four mistakes, so test a group in your head against all four words before you submit it.
- Beware the obvious cluster. If five words seem to fit one theme, at least one of them belongs somewhere else.
Connections resets at midnight local time, and we will have hints and answers for #1248 here tomorrow. Good luck with the board.
