Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.
Today’s NYT Connections puzzle is a real challenge. The purple category requires some real mental work, but the yellow group was pretty easy once I spotted the similarity. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.
The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.
Read more: NYT Connections Puzzle: Here’s a Great Hint to Help You Win
Hints for today’s Connections groups
Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.
Yellow group hint: Sound-alikes.
Green group hint: Can’t keep it together.
Blue group hint: Yankee is another one.
Purple group hint: Unscramble letters, but not for vegetables.
Answers for today’s Connections groups
Yellow group: Homophones.
Green group: Rupture.
Blue group: MLB player.
Purple group: Fruit anagrams.
Read more: The One Wordle Hack That Can Save Your Winning Streak
What are today’s Connections answers?
The completed NYT Connections puzzle for May 18, 2026.
The yellow words in today’s Connections
The theme is homophones. The four answers are pair, pare, pear and père.
The green words in today’s Connections
The theme is rupture. The four answers are blow, crack, pop and split.
The blue words in today’s Connections
The theme is MLB player. The four answers are Padre, Red, Royal and Twin.
The purple words in today’s Connections
The theme is fruit anagrams. The four answers are cheap (peach), Earp (pear), lump (plum) and wiki (kiwi).