NYT Connections Hints and Answers for Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026 (#1238): Martini Orders and Hidden Dog Commands

Today’s Connections from The New York Times (NYT) is puzzle #1238, for Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026, edited by Wyna Liu. One group is slang for good things that sound bad, another is how a martini can be ordered, one is things that have strings, and one hides a dog command at the start of each word. 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

In board order, left to right and top to bottom: Staycation, Guitar, Dirty, Killer, Sick, Downfall, Shaken, Up, Tennis Racket, Shakespeare, Wicked, Tassel, Sitcom, Marionette, Dry, Gnarly

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

  Slang words that are praise even though they sound like insults.
• Hint 2

  Think of a big wave, a deadly joke, a feeling of being ill and a witch.

Green

• Hint 1

  Words a bartender might hear when you order a classic cocktail.
• Hint 2

  One means not stirred, one means not sweet, one means with olive brine, and one means served without ice.

Blue

• Hint 1

  Each item has one or more strings attached or stretched across it.
• Hint 2

  Think of an instrument, a puppet, a decoration that hangs from a curtain or cap, and sports gear.

Purple

• Hint 1

  Look at the first few letters of each word.
• Hint 2

  Each one starts with a command you might give a dog: down, shake, sit and stay.

Solving tips

Start with purple, because the first letters of Downfall, Shakespeare, Sitcom and Staycation give it away once you spot the pattern. Then separate the martini words, and keep Shaken in mind: it looks like it could fit with Shakespeare, but it belongs with the drink. Leave yellow for last, since its four slang words are close in meaning and easy to mix up.

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, Words Meaning Good That Sound Bad: Gnarly, Killer, Sick, Wicked
• Green, Martini Specifications: Dirty, Dry, Shaken, Up
• Blue, Things With Strings: Guitar, Marionette, Tassel, Tennis Racket
• Purple, Starting With Dog Commands: Downfall, Shakespeare, Sitcom, Staycation

1. Words Meaning Good That Sound BadGnarly, Killer, Sick, Wicked
2. Martini SpecificationsDirty, Dry, Shaken, Up
3. Things With StringsGuitar, Marionette, Tassel, Tennis Racket
4. Starting With Dog CommandsDownfall, Shakespeare, Sitcom, Staycation

Why the traps worked

Hidden dog commands. The purple group is built from the first letters, not the meaning. Downfall starts with down, Shakespeare with shake, Sitcom with sit and Staycation with stay.

Shaken and Shakespeare. Both begin with the letters shake, so Shaken can look like part of the dog-command group. Here it sits with Dirty, Dry and Up as a martini specification.

We checked the solution against the puzzle’s official data before posting. Puzzle #1239 arrives at midnight.