Connections Hint and Answers Today (#1233, October 26, 2026)
Today’s NYT Connections puzzle, #1233 for Monday, October 26, 2026, is a Monday board with a Halloween-season wink. The yellow group falls fast once you hear the words as spoken replies, the green group is a trip across every mat you have ever stood on, the blue group demands you know your dog-show categories, and the purple group is a horror-movie wordplay finish that rewards film fans. If your mistakes are running low, work through 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 #1233:
- CHILLING
- HALLOWEEK
- HERDING
- HOSTED
- HOUND
- JAWN
- MANAGING
- NOT BAD
- PRAYER
- PSYCHS
- SAME OLD
- SPORTING
- TOY
- WELCOME
- WRESTLING
- YOGA
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
Imagine someone asks you how you are doing. Four of today’s words are the kind of short, casual replies you give without thinking, from breezy to just getting by.
Green hint
Think of floors and the things laid on them for different activities. Four of today’s words are kinds of mats, and they range from a place of worship to a gym floor to a front door.
Blue hint
Think of a dog show. Four of today’s words are official groups used to sort dog breeds, the categories a pedigree dog competes in before best in show.
Purple hint
Think of classic horror films, then change one letter at the end of each title. Four of today’s words are almost famous scary movies, each with its final letter swapped for something slightly off.
Spoiler warning
Stop here if you want to keep solving on your own. The complete solved board for Connections #1233, with all four category names and explanations, is directly below.
Today’s Connections answers
Yellow: RESPONSES TO “HOW ARE YOU?”
CHILLING, MANAGING, NOT BAD, SAME OLD
Each of these four phrases can answer the question “How are you?” You might be chilling on a lazy afternoon, managing through a busy week, feeling not bad after a decent day, or stuck in the same old routine. This is the group most players find first, because the spoken replies are so natural once you hear them as conversation. CHILLING is the trap word here, since it also sounds like a horror word on a Halloween-season board, but its everyday reply sense, just chilling, is what the puzzle wants.
Green: KINDS OF MATS
PRAYER, WELCOME, WRESTLING, YOGA
These are four kinds of mats. A prayer mat is used for daily prayer, a welcome mat sits at a front door, a wrestling mat covers a gym floor, and a yoga mat rolls out for a class. WELCOME is the word that pulls double duty on this board, since it also reads like a greeting, and WRESTLING can look like a sport rather than a mat, but in the floor-covering sense they are both unmistakably mats. Once you spot one mat, the rest of the floor follows quickly.
Blue: AKC DOG BREED GROUPS
HERDING, HOUND, SPORTING, TOY
These are four of the American Kennel Club groups used to classify dog breeds. Herding dogs round up livestock, hound dogs hunt by scent or sight, sporting dogs work with hunters in the field, and toy dogs are the small companion breeds. This is the knowledge-check group of the day, and the one that rewards dog-show watchers. If you know even two of the four groups, the other two fall into place by elimination, because no other breed words on the board pair with a shared classification system.
Purple: HORROR MOVIES WITH LAST LETTER CHANGED
HALLOWEEK, HOSTED, JAWN, PSYCHS
Each of these is a horror movie title with its last letter changed. HALLOWEEK is Halloween with the final N swapped for K, HOSTED is Hostel with the final L swapped for D, JAWN is Jaws with the final S swapped for N, and PSYCHS is Psycho with the final O swapped for S. This is the trickiest group because each word looks almost right and almost wrong at the same time, and HALLOWEEK is the word most players misplace, since it reads like a seasonal phrase before it reads like a film title. Once that click happens, the horror shelf is complete, and the board is solved.
How today’s board was built to trick you
Three words on this board do serious double duty. CHILLING is a casual reply and a horror-season word. WELCOME is a greeting and a mat. WRESTLING is a sport and a mat. Add SPORTING, which is both a dog group and a word for athletic activity, and the board is full of decoys designed to pull you toward groups that do not exist. The winning strategy on a board like this is to trust the strongest spoken or category link first, in this case the “How are you?” replies, and then let the leftovers sort themselves. If you found yourself grouping CHILLING, HALLOWEEK, JAWN, and PSYCHS together as horror words, you were not wrong about the mood, you were just one step away from the puzzle’s real groups.
Yesterday’s answers, for reference
Yesterday’s Connections puzzle, #1232 for October 25, 2026, solved as STEAL (BOOST, PALM, POCKET, SWIPE), PASTA SHAPES (BOW TIE, ELBOW, SHELL, WAGON WHEEL), FICTIONAL TOMS (RIPLEY, SAWYER, SWIFT, THUMB), and THINGS THAT CAN BE SNAPPED (FINGERS, FOOTBALL, GLOW STICK, RUBBER BAND). If you missed that board, it is a good warm-up for today’s double-duty words, since it used the same trick of words that fit two groups at once.
Did you solve Connections #1233 without a mistake, or did the purple group cost you a guess? Come back tomorrow for the next board, with fresh hints, a spoiler-safe reveal, and the same no-rush format.
