Connections Hint
Puzzle #1206 · September 29, 2026

NYT Connections Hints for September 29, 2026

Start with the spoiler-free hints. Go deeper only when you need to. Reveal answers on your own terms.

Tuesday, September 29, 2026
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Today’s 16 Puzzle Words
Tap any word to see how it’s used in this puzzle
STREAM BEDINSIDETUCKED AWAYMONSTERSMOUTHSECRETREMOTEDRAINAGE BASINDELTAORAL PHASEHOME GAMEMODEL TANKTOYHIDDENFREEZE TAGFINDING

Spoiler-Free Hints

Three levels — warmer as you read down
i Ultra safe

A direction for each group — no names given.

  • Four words leaning the same way — a place no one would look.
  • Four words that map pieces of one long, winding thing.
  • These four are just openings — something much bigger is missing.
  • Ordinary-looking phrases carrying something extra — the surface meaning is a decoy.
ii Warmer

What kind of thinking each group asks for.

  • This group is a straight synonym set: four adjectives pointing at the same out-of-the-way feeling.
  • You'll need basic earth-science vocabulary — think about the parts of one long flowing system.
  • Film knowledge helps here — think about famous titles and how they begin.
  • Phrase-level wordplay: the meaning of each phrase is a decoy, but the letters are not.
iii Mild spoilers

Pointed nudges on the words built to fool you.

  • All four are synonyms — plain adjectives for a place kept out of view or far from prying eyes.
  • All four are geographic features of one kind of watercourse — its collecting region, its endpoint, and points between.
  • Each is the opening word of a well-known animation studio's film title — the rest never appears.
  • Consecutive letters across each phrase spell out a character from an ancient alphabet.

Today’s Trap Words

The words engineered to mislead

Every Connections board plants a few decoys. Here are today’s, and why they pull you the wrong way.

DELTA

It doubles as the name of a letter in the Greek alphabet, a coincidence that can send solvers hunting for alphabet tricks instead of seeing the landform.

MOUTH

It works as a body part and a speech reference as easily as it works as a geographic one, so it happily pairs with the wrong words.

HIDDEN

The word's own meaning suggests concealment — a perfect false trail on a board where other answers really are concealed.

TOY

Its playful, childlike flavor makes it look like a companion for the game phrases rather than a film title in waiting.

Connections Answers — September 29, 2026

Tap any group to reveal it
Answers are hidden — tap a group to peek, or reveal all at once.
SECLUDED
HIDDEN · SECRET · REMOTE · TUCKED AWAY
Tap to reveal
RIVER FEATURES
DELTA · MOUTH · STREAM BED · DRAINAGE BASIN
Tap to reveal
FIRST WORDS OF PIXAR FILMS
INSIDE · MONSTERS · FINDING · TOY
Tap to reveal
PHRASES HIDING GREEK LETTERS
MODEL TANK · FREEZE TAG · ORAL PHASE · HOME GAME
Tap to reveal
SEE ALSO:
NYT Wordle hints for September 29, 2026 NYT Pips hints for September 29, 2026 NYT Strands hints for September 29, 2026

Category Breakdown — Puzzle #1206

Why each group works — not just what it is

SECLUDED

Four ways of saying a place is kept out of sight or far from everyone. It's the gentlest group on the board, a plain synonym set that rewards reading the words literally — with TUCKED AWAY as the only two-word entry.

RIVER FEATURES

Every term names part of a river's anatomy: the wide inland region that feeds it, the channel floor, the point where it meets a larger body of water, and the fan-shaped deposit left there. Textbook geography, hiding in plain sight.

FIRST WORDS OF PIXAR FILMS

Each is only the opening fragment of an animated studio's title — Finding (Nemo), Inside (Out), Monsters (Inc.), Toy (Story). The trick is that every fragment functions perfectly well as an ordinary standalone word.

PHRASES HIDING GREEK LETTERS

Running letters straight across each phrase reveals a Greek character: zeta in FREEZE TAG, omega in HOME GAME, delta in MODEL TANK, alpha in ORAL PHASE. The sting is that DELTA is simultaneously sitting openly in the geography group.

Word Guide — All 16 Puzzle Words

What each word means in this puzzle
STREAM BED
The channel floor that a flowing body of water sits in. 'Bed' here is a landscape noun, not furniture, which is exactly the kind of small shift in sense that trips solvers up.
INSIDE
Within something, or the interior of a place. Here it is a fragment — the opening word of an animated film about emotions living in a person's head.
TUCKED AWAY
Stored or placed somewhere snug and out of sight. The only two-word phrase in its group, which gives an otherwise ordinary synonym set a bit of extra texture.
MONSTERS
Frightening imaginary creatures — and here simply the first word of an animated film title set in a scream-powered factory.
MOUTH
Where a river empties into a larger body of water. It also means the body part used for speech, a coincidence that pulls solvers toward the spoken-sounding phrase elsewhere on the board.
SECRET
Something kept from general knowledge, or the adjective describing such a thing. A simple synonym that helps set the tone for the board's more literal opening.
REMOTE
Far away or isolated — and also the casual word for a handheld controller. The gadget sense is a fun red herring, but only the distance meaning matters here.
DRAINAGE BASIN
The entire area of land whose rain and runoff feed one river system. The longest entry on the board, and nearly impossible to mistake for anything but geography.
DELTA
A river's fan-shaped deposit where it meets a larger body of water — and also a letter of the Greek alphabet, a double life that makes it the board's most misleading word.
ORAL PHASE
A stage in language development centered on speaking and listening rather than reading or writing. Read letter by letter, it conceals a character from the Greek alphabet.
HOME GAME
A sports fixture played at a team's own venue rather than on the road. Its two words also hide an ancient character crossing the boundary between them.
MODEL TANK
A scale replica of an armored military vehicle, often assembled as a hobby. Split across its two words, its letters hold a concealed Greek character.
TOY
A plaything for children. Here it does no work on its own — it's only the opening fragment of a beloved animated film title about toys that come alive.
HIDDEN
Kept out of view or deliberately concealed. A plain adjective whose own meaning quietly winks at the way other phrases on the board operate.
FREEZE TAG
A playground chase game where a tagged player must stand still until a teammate frees them. Its letters happen to run a certain ancient character straight across the gap between the two words.
FINDING
A discovery or a conclusion reached. On this board it works only as the first word of an animated film title about a lost fish.

Puzzle Design Analysis

Why the editor constructed it this way

The constructor plants a gorgeous cross-group illusion: DELTA is a Greek letter, yet it sits openly among the landforms while four sibling letters hide inside innocent phrases. Yellow and Green stay deliberately literal, buying trust before Blue's pop-culture shortcut and Purple's letter-scanning twist. The two-word phrases are chosen so the hidden characters straddle word boundaries, making the concealment feel accidental rather than engineered.

Difficulty & Analysis

How tough today’s board really plays
Overall
6.1/10
Most deceptive
DELTA

a textbook decoy

Hardest group
Hidden Greek letters

requires lateral thinking

Connections Strategy Guides

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