The New York Times Connections word puzzle for Sunday, October 18, 2026, challenges players to sort 16 words into four distinct groups based on shared characteristics. Game 1225 combines household furniture, stick-shaped products, well-known perfumes, and words beginning with terms associated with obscured air.
Each category contains four answers. Difficulty levels progress from yellow (the easiest) through green and blue to purple (the most challenging). The New York Times Connections Companion rated this puzzle’s difficulty at 2.5 out of 5, making it a moderately balanced challenge.
NYT Connections Hints for October 18 (Game #1225)
If you want to test your deduction skills before looking at the full solution, here are brief thematic hints for each of the four categories, ordered from easiest to hardest:
- 🟨 Yellow Category: Places to store clothes
- 🟩 Green Category: Things that come in sticks
- 🟦 Blue Category: Famous perfumes
- 🟪 Purple Category: Starting with things that cloud the air
NYT Connections Answers for October 18, 2026
For players ready for the complete solutions, here are the official group names and their corresponding words for Game #1225:
🟨 Places to Store Clothes
BUREAU, CHEST, TRUNK, WARDROBE
This straightforward yellow category relies on literal furniture items traditionally used for keeping garments organized.
🟩 Things That Come in Sticks
BUTTER, DEODORANT, DYNAMITE, INCENSE
The green category features a physical form factor common to everyday goods, spanning dairy, hygiene, explosives, and aromatic products.
🟦 Famous Perfumes
ANGEL, COCO, OBSESSION, OPIUM
Trivia takes center stage in the blue group, uniting iconic, globally recognized fragrance brand names.
🟪 Starting With Things That Cloud the Air
FOGERTY, HAZEL, MISTER, VAPORETTO
The purple wordplay group relies on the first syllables matching atmospheric conditions: Fogerty (fog), Hazel (haze), Mister (mist), and Vaporetto (vapor).
Tips for Solving NYT Connections
Mastering Connections requires careful observation of words that might fit multiple categories. Solvers should check that a chosen group of four words shares an exact, equivalent relationship before locking in a guess. Ambiguous words often serve as traps designed to mislead players until simpler groups are cleared.
