The New York Times Connections
The New York Times Connections

NEW YORK — Thursday's New York Times Connections puzzle, No. 1236, mixed penguins, typefaces and multicolored objects. Several overlapping clues made it trickier than it first appeared.

Hints come first for players who want a nudge. The full answers follow further down.

How Connections works

Connections shows a grid of 16 words. Players sort them into four groups of four that share a common thread. Each group has a color that signals its difficulty:

Yellow: the most straightforward Green: moderate Blue: harder Purple: the trickiest, often built on wordplay

Players can make four mistakes before the game ends. If a guess gets three of the four words right, the game shows a "One away" message.

Thursday's 16 words

The grid for Oct. 29, 2026:

TUXEDO, TRAFFIC LIGHT, ROMAN, EMPEROR, PARKING METER, CANDY CORN, NEAPOLITAN, PIGGY BANK, TYPEWRITER, WISHING WELL, GOTHIC, ANTARCTICA, CALICO, WADDLE, SANS, PAYPHONE

Hints for each group

Yellow: Places you might drop your spare change. Green: Think of a flightless bird that lives in the cold. Blue: Complete the name of a well-known typeface. Purple: Count the colors.

TechRadar's Johnny Dee offered his own hints, including "insert cash in these" for yellow, "all linked to a non-flying bird" for green, "type with missing words" for blue and "triple shade" for purple.

The red herrings

Several words seemed to fit more than one group.

TUXEDO could suggest black-and-white patterns, which might have tempted players to put it with the three-color group. It belonged with the penguins, which are often described as wearing tuxedos.

CALICO was another trap. Players thinking of black-and-white animals might have tried to place it with the penguins, but calico describes a coloring of three colors, usually seen in cats.

EMPEROR could relate to Roman history, pairing it with ROMAN. In fact, EMPEROR referred to the emperor penguin, and ROMAN belonged with the fonts.

Dee rated the puzzle hard and finished with one mistake. He said the font words "immediately jumped out" at him, but that he confused calico with penguins, leading to his error.

Today's Connections answers

Yellow — THINGS YOU PUT COINS INTO: PARKING METER, PAYPHONE, PIGGY BANK, WISHING WELL

All four accept coins, whether to pay, save or make a wish.

Green — ASSOCIATED WITH PENGUINS: ANTARCTICA, EMPEROR, TUXEDO, WADDLE

Penguins live in Antarctica, the emperor is the largest species, their markings resemble a tuxedo, and they are known for their waddling walk.

Blue — ENDS OF FAMOUS FONTS: GOTHIC, ROMAN, SANS, TYPEWRITER

Each completes a well-known typeface name: Century Gothic, Times New Roman, Comic Sans and American Typewriter.

Purple — THINGS THAT FEATURE THREE COLORS: CALICO, CANDY CORN, NEAPOLITAN, TRAFFIC LIGHT

A calico cat typically has three colors, candy corn is striped in three colors, Neapolitan ice cream combines three flavors, and a traffic light uses red, yellow and green.

Solving tips

Regular Connections players often use a few strategies:

Look for words with multiple associations. TUXEDO, CALICO and EMPEROR all had more than one possible meaning on Thursday. Think about completions. Blue and purple groups often require adding a word, such as the font names. Use your mistakes wisely. A "One away" message is useful information. Swap one word at a time instead of starting over. Shuffle the board. The shuffle button can break up visual patterns and reveal new links.

On Thursday, solving the coin group first would have cleared away four of the longer phrases. That would have made it easier to separate the penguin and color categories.

Halloween tie-in

With Halloween on Saturday, CANDY CORN, the popular and divisive autumn treat, was a timely inclusion in the purple group.

Other New York Times games

Connections is part of the Times' daily lineup alongside Wordle, Strands, Spelling Bee and The Mini Crossword. The Times also publishes Connections: Sports Edition, a separate puzzle built around athletes, teams and sports terms.

The Wordle answer for Thursday, Oct. 29, was MOTOR.

A new Connections puzzle is released every day at midnight local time.