Connections #1254 Hints & Answers Today, November 16, 2026

Today’s Connections from The New York Times (NYT) is puzzle #1254, for Monday, Nov. 16, 2026, edited by Wyna Liu. Only one of the 16 entries is two words, and if you are new to the game, our Connections page covers the rules. Below are two hints for each color, from yellow, the easiest, to purple, the trickiest, then the full solution and a decoy map in a marked spoiler section.

Today’s 16 words

In Love, Wonderland, Water, Melon, Onion, Blockbuster, Garden, Foliage, Sausage, Gloves, Asleep, Chicken, Cleaning, Camp, Guy, School

Hints for each group

Yellow

• Hint 1

  Each entry follows the same word, the one for the months when plants start to grow.
• Hint 2

  One is a chore done around the house, and one is a kind of drinking water.
• Reveal the yellow group

  Spring ___: Chicken, Cleaning, Onion, Water

Green

• Hint 1

  Each entry follows the same word, the one for the months with the longest days.
• Hint 2

  One is a cured meat you can slice, and one is a kind of big movie.
• Reveal the green group

  Summer ___: Blockbuster, Camp, Sausage, School

Blue

• Hint 1

  Each entry follows the same short word, one that is also a verb for tumbling down.
• Hint 2

  One describes leaves changing color, and one is a person who takes the blame.
• Reveal the blue group

  Fall ___: Asleep, Foliage, Guy, In Love

Purple

• Hint 1

  Each entry follows the same word, the one for the coldest months.
• Hint 2

  One is worn on hands, and one is a fantasy land of snow and ice.
• Reveal the purple group

  Winter ___: Garden, Gloves, Melon, Wonderland

Solving tips

Show the solving tips

Start with the entries that fit only one phrase you know. Say each phrase out loud with the word that might precede it; a phrase that sounds natural is a good sign, and one you have never heard is a warning. Some entries here fit more than one phrase, so hold those until the groups around them are settled.

Keep a streak log on our printable weekly calendar or the November 2026 printable calendar.

More of today’s puzzles: Wordle hints, Strands hints and yesterday’s Connections hints.

Today’s Connections answers (spoilers)

Stop here if you still want to solve it yourself.

• Yellow, Spring ___

  Chicken, Cleaning, Onion, Water
• Green, Summer ___

  Blockbuster, Camp, Sausage, School
• Blue, Fall ___

  Asleep, Foliage, Guy, In Love
• Purple, Winter ___

  Garden, Gloves, Melon, Wonderland

1. Spring ___Chicken, Cleaning, Onion, Water
2. Summer ___Blockbuster, Camp, Sausage, School
3. Fall ___Asleep, Foliage, Guy, In Love
4. Winter ___Garden, Gloves, Melon, Wonderland

Why the traps worked

All four groups share one idea, the four seasons, so the trap is that the same entry can attach to more than one of the four words. Garden is the widest case: spring garden, summer garden and fall garden are all everyday phrases, so it only lands in Winter ___ once the other three groups are full. Cleaning is the other near miss, because fall cleaning is also a phrase people use, but Spring ___ has the idiom.

Four entries are foods that also look like a group of their own: Chicken, Onion, Sausage and Melon. They are split across three seasons, so a food category does not exist here.

Decoy map

Entry	Real group	Look-alike group	Why it tempts
Garden	Winter ___	Spring ___, Summer ___	Spring garden and summer garden are both common phrases.
Cleaning	Spring ___	Fall ___	Fall cleaning is a phrase people use for a seasonal chore.
Camp	Summer ___	Winter ___	Winter camp is also a phrase.
Melon	Winter ___	Summer ___	Melon is a warm-weather fruit, but the phrase is winter melon.
Sausage	Summer ___	Spring ___	It is a food like Chicken and Onion, which sit in the other group.
Chicken	Spring ___	Summer ___	It is a food like Sausage, but the phrase is spring chicken.

We checked the solution against the puzzle’s official data before posting. Puzzle #1255 arrives at midnight.

Yesterday's Connections answer

The four groups in Connections on Sunday, Nov. 15, 2026, easiest to hardest:

• Yellow, Unmatched: All-Time, Historic, Record, Unprecedented
• Green, Wedding Website Sections: Dress Code, Registry, Rsvp, Travel
• Blue, ___ Plane: Astral, Cartesian, Inclined, Jet
• Purple, Ending in Vegetables in the Allium Family: Archive, Octonion, Rapscallion, Sleek

Yesterday's hints and full solution.