NYT Connections Hints and Answers for Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026 (#1235): Mars Rovers and Path Homophones

Today’s Connections from The New York Times (NYT) is puzzle #1235, for Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, edited by Wyna Liu. One group is about having a soft spot for someone, another is the parts of an email, one is a set of spacecraft names, and the last is made of words that sound like paths. 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

Curiosity, Rout, Subject, Attraction, Attachment, Spirit, Body, Coarse, Crush, Weigh, Signature, Interest, Rode, Opportunity, Feelings, Perseverance

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

  Words for being drawn to another person.
• Hint 2

  Think of a schoolyard word for a first romantic interest, a spark between two people, and the plural noun for what you have for someone.

Green

• Hint 1

  Pieces you fill in or add when you write a message on a computer.
• Hint 2

  One is the line that says what the message is about, one is the main text, one is a file you add, and one is the sign-off block at the bottom.

Blue

• Hint 1

  Each word is the name of a robotic vehicle sent to another planet by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
• Hint 2

  The planet is Mars, and the names are all words that could describe a person’s qualities.

Purple

• Hint 1

  Say each word aloud and it sounds like another word.
• Hint 2

  The sound-alikes are course, road, route and way, all ways to get from one place to another.

Solving tips

Start with purple, because the four sound-alikes share almost no meaning with the other twelve words. Then take green, where the four email parts are concrete things you can picture on a screen. Blue and yellow are the ones that blur: several words name a quality of mind or heart, so sort by who gave the name, a space agency or a feeling for another person.

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, Romantic Liking: Attraction, Crush, Feelings, Interest
• Green, Components of an Email: Attachment, Body, Signature, Subject
• Blue, NASA Mars Rovers: Curiosity, Opportunity, Perseverance, Spirit
• Purple, Homophones of Paths: Coarse, Rode, Rout, Weigh

1. Romantic LikingAttraction, Crush, Feelings, Interest
2. Components of an EmailAttachment, Body, Signature, Subject
3. NASA Mars RoversCuriosity, Opportunity, Perseverance, Spirit
4. Homophones of PathsCoarse, Rode, Rout, Weigh

Why the traps worked

Feelings and qualities. Curiosity, Spirit, Perseverance, Opportunity and Interest all read like qualities or states of mind. Interest belongs with the romantic group, while Curiosity, Spirit, Perseverance and Opportunity are the four rover names.

Homophones. Coarse sounds like course, Rode like road, Rout like route and Weigh like way. Rout and Rode have everyday meanings of their own, which hides the sound-alike link.

We checked the solution against the puzzle’s official data before posting. Puzzle #1236 arrives at midnight.