NYT Connections Hints and Answers for Monday, Oct. 26, 2026 (#1233): Replies, Mats, Dogs and Movie Twists

Today’s Connections from The New York Times (NYT) is puzzle #1233, for Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, edited by Wyna Liu. One group is about replies to a friendly question, another about things you stand or kneel on, and the purple group hides movie titles behind a changed last letter. Below are two levels of hints for each color, then the full solution and an explanation of the overlaps in a marked spoiler section.

Today’s 16 words

Chilling, Halloweek, Herding, Hosted, Hound, Jawn, Managing, Not Bad, Prayer, Psychs, Same Old, Sporting, Toy, Welcome, Wrestling, Yoga

How the game works

Sort the 16 entries into four groups of four. You can make four mistakes. The groups run from yellow to green, blue and purple, with purple the group that depends most on wordplay.

Hints for each group

Yellow

• Hint 1: What you might say when a friend greets you with a question.
• Hint 2: Four short answers to “How are you?”, one of which is a plain way of saying fine.

Green

• Hint 1: Things that lie flat on the floor.
• Hint 2: One is for a doorway, one is for exercise, one is used in a sport and one is used for worship.

Blue

• Hint 1: A kennel club sorts dogs into these.
• Hint 2: The American Kennel Club (AKC) groups breeds by job or size. Think of dogs that gather animals, track by scent, work in the field and sit in a lap.

Purple

• Hint 1: Each one is a scary movie title with its last letter swapped for a different one.
• Hint 2: A slasher set on Oct. 31, a hotel for travelers, a shark movie and a thriller set in a motel.

Solving tips

Start with blue and green, because each has a clear theme. Hold Welcome until you have tested the yellow words, since it can sound like a reply. Read the purple words aloud and ask which scary title each one is missing a letter from.

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

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

Today’s Connections answers (spoilers)

Stop here if you still want to solve it yourself.

• Yellow, Responses to “How Are You?”: Chilling, Managing, Not Bad, Same Old
• Green, Kinds of Mats: Prayer, Welcome, Wrestling, Yoga
• Blue, AKC Dog Breed Groups: Herding, Hound, Sporting, Toy
• Purple, Horror Movies With Last Letter Changed: Halloweek (Halloween), Hosted (Hostel), Jawn (Jaws), Psychs (Psycho)

Why the traps worked

Welcome. It sounds like something you say to a guest, so it tempts you toward the yellow replies. Here it is a welcome mat, which puts it with the prayer, wrestling and yoga mats.

Toy and Sporting. Both look like everyday words. In this puzzle they are two of the four American Kennel Club groups, with Herding and Hound.

Hosted and Psychs. Both read as real words, so they hide well. Hosted is Hostel with its last letter changed, and Psychs is Psycho with its last letter changed.

We checked the solution against the puzzle’s official data before posting. Puzzle #1234 arrives at midnight.