Connections #1047 for April 23, 2026 leans into astronomy, music history, and genre fiction — a varied mix that will trip up even seasoned players. Read on for spoiler-free hints first, then full category names, and finally the complete answers at the bottom.
What Is NYT Connections?
New York Times word games include Connections, one of the most addictive daily puzzles around. The game presents 16 words on a grid and challenges you to sort them into four groups of four, each sharing a hidden common thread. Those threads can be anything: subcategories of a concept, words that follow a specific word, hidden phrases, or pop culture references.
Each group is color-coded by difficulty. Yellow is the easiest, green is moderate, blue is harder, and purple is the most deceptive. Every puzzle has exactly one correct solution — words that seem to fit multiple categories are usually a red herring.
How to Play
- Select four words you believe share a connection, then hit “Submit.”
- If all four are correct, the group locks in and those tiles are cleared from the board.
- A wrong guess counts as a mistake. You get four mistakes total before the game ends.
- You can shuffle and rearrange the board at any time to spot patterns more easily.
- Like Wordle, you can share your color-coded results on social media after finishing.
Category Hints for April 23, 2026
Not ready for spoilers? Here are vague clues to point you in the right direction without giving anything away.
🟨 Yellow (easiest): Think about the edge of something — where one thing ends and another begins.
🟩 Green: These words all describe types of made-up stories. What shelf would you find them on?
🟦 Blue: Astronomy fans will recognize this one. Think about a classic memory trick for the planets.
🟪 Purple (hardest): Each of these words secretly starts with the name of a four-letter rock band from the 1980s. Look closely at the first few letters.
Category Names for April 23, 2026
Need the category names but still want to figure out the words yourself? Here they are:
🟨 BORDER
🟩 KINDS OF FICTION
🟦 WORDS IN A PLANETARY MNEMONIC
🟪 STARTING WITH FOUR-LETTER ’80S BANDS
Full Answers for Connections #1047
Here are the complete solutions for today’s puzzle:
🟨 BORDER: FLANK, NEIGHBOR, SKIRT, TOUCH
🟩 KINDS OF FICTION: HISTORICAL, LITERARY, PULP, SCIENCE
🟦 WORDS IN A PLANETARY MNEMONIC: EDUCATED, MOTHER, MY, VERY
🟪 STARTING WITH FOUR-LETTER ’80S BANDS: ASIAGO, DEVOTE, TOTORO, WHAMMY
What Made Today’s Puzzle Tricky
The purple category is almost certainly where most players lost a life today. ASIAGO looks like a cheese (it is), TOTORO looks like the beloved Studio Ghibli character (it is), and WHAMMY looks like a penalty (it is). But hidden inside each is a four-letter ’80s band: ASIA, DEVO, TOTO, and WHAM. None of those band names are obvious when buried inside a longer word, especially when your brain has already filed TOTORO under “Miyazaki film.”
The blue category — words from a planetary mnemonic — requires knowing that phrases like “My Very Educated Mother” are used to remember the order of the planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars…). EDUCATED, MOTHER, MY, and VERY all appear in common versions of that mnemonic. Without that knowledge, these four words look completely unrelated on the grid.
SCIENCE in the green category is worth flagging too. Science fiction is an obvious pairing, but SCIENCE could easily lure players toward the blue astronomy theme. That misdirection is intentional.
Tips for Today’s Puzzle
Solving today’s puzzle is much easier with the right approach:
1. Lock in yellow first. The BORDER group — FLANK, NEIGHBOR, SKIRT, TOUCH — is the most straightforward. Words meaning “to be adjacent to” should stand out once you look for verbs or words describing boundaries.
2. Read purple words letter by letter. For the ’80s bands category, you have to mentally scan each word for hidden band names. WHAMMY contains WHAM, DEVOTE contains DEVO, ASIAGO contains ASIA, and TOTORO contains TOTO. Don’t evaluate these words by meaning alone.
3. Don’t let SCIENCE fool you. It belongs in KINDS OF FICTION (science fiction), not in the planetary mnemonic category. The blue group only needs the individual words that appear in a mnemonic sentence, not the subject those mnemonics help you remember.
4. Test the mnemonic. If you’re unsure about the blue group, try building the sentence: “My Very Educated Mother…” — all four of those standalone words are in the puzzle.
More Daily Puzzle Answers
Looking for answers to other puzzles? Check out these recent posts:
- April 20, 2026 NYT Connections Puzzle #1044 Hints and Answers
- April 19, 2026 NYT Connections Puzzle #1043 Hints and Answers
- April 16, 2026 NYT Connections Puzzle #1040 Hints and Answers
- April 20, 2026 Wordle #1766 Hint and Answer
- April 20, 2026 NYT Connections Sports Edition #574 Hints and Answers
- April 20, 2026 NYT Strands Hints and Answers
- April 20, 2026 NYT Pips Hints and Answers
Shahid Maqsood is a digital entrepreneur and SEO specialist focused on building engaging web experiences. He is the creator of DotWordle, combining creativity with smart, user-friendly design.
