NYT Connections Hints and Answers for Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026 (#1236): Coins, Penguins, Fonts and Three Colors

Today’s Connections from The New York Times (NYT) is puzzle #1236, for Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026, edited by Wyna Liu. One group is things that take coins, one is linked to penguins, one is the ends of famous font names, and one is things that show three colors. 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

Tuxedo, Traffic Light, Roman, Emperor, Parking Meter, Candy Corn, Neapolitan, Piggy Bank, Typewriter, Wishing Well, Gothic, Antarctica, Calico, Waddle, Sans, Payphone

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

  Places where a coin goes in and something happens or is saved.
• Hint 2

  One is for time on the street, one is for a call, one is for savings and one is for a wish.

Green

• Hint 1

  Words that go with a black-and-white bird that lives in the cold.
• Hint 2

  A continent, a kind of royalty, formal wear and a way of walking.

Blue

• Hint 1

  Each word is the second half of a font name.
• Hint 2

  Add a first word to each: Century, Times New, Comic and American.

Purple

• Hint 1

  Each one shows three colors.
• Hint 2

  A cat, a Halloween sweet, a three-flavor ice cream and a signal at an intersection.

Solving tips

Start with yellow, because the coin theme is the most literal and its four items have little overlap with the rest. The font group is the hardest to see, so treat Roman, Gothic, Sans and Typewriter as a set once you spot that they finish font names. Leave purple until the other three are solved, since its four items look unrelated until you count the colors.

Candy corn ties the board to Halloween, which falls on Saturday, Oct. 31.

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, Things You Put Coins Into: Parking Meter, Payphone, Piggy Bank, Wishing Well
• Green, Associated with Penguins: Antarctica, Emperor, Tuxedo, Waddle
• Blue, Ends of Famous Fonts: Gothic, Roman, Sans, Typewriter
• Purple, Things That Feature Three Colors: Calico, Candy Corn, Neapolitan, Traffic Light

1. Things You Put Coins IntoParking Meter, Payphone, Piggy Bank, Wishing Well
2. Associated with PenguinsAntarctica, Emperor, Tuxedo, Waddle
3. Ends of Famous FontsGothic, Roman, Sans, Typewriter
4. Things That Feature Three ColorsCalico, Candy Corn, Neapolitan, Traffic Light

Why the traps worked

Fonts. Gothic, Roman, Sans and Typewriter are the last words of Century Gothic, Times New Roman, Comic Sans and American Typewriter. Read alone, Roman and Gothic point to history and style, and Typewriter looks like an object.

Emperor and Tuxedo. Emperor fits a ruler idea next to Roman, and Tuxedo can read as clothing. Here they belong with Antarctica and Waddle as penguin words.

We checked the solution against the puzzle’s official data before posting. Puzzle #1237 arrives at midnight.