NYT Connections Hints and Answers: July 11, 2026

NYT Connections puzzle No. 1,126 for Saturday, July 11, 2026, presents 16 words sorted into four hidden categories. The purple group built on a letter-doubling mechanic tied to alphabetical position is where the puzzle earns its difficulty rating.

How NYT Connections Works

NYT Connections is a free daily word game from The New York Times. Each puzzle gives players 16 terms to sort into four groups of four, each group sharing a hidden theme. The categories are colour-coded by difficulty yellow is the most accessible, then green, then blue, and purple is the hardest.

Players can make up to four mistakes before the puzzle ends. A correct group submission does not count as a mistake only a wrong guess does. A new puzzle becomes available every day at midnight in the player's local time zone.

Four Hints for Puzzle No. 1,126 No Answers Yet

Yellow hint: Think of what you would find under a big top at a travelling circus.

Green hint: These four words all describe water when it is completely undisturbed.

Blue hint: Four characters from a Pixar film franchise. They are all toys.

Purple hint: Each word contains a pair of identical letters. Where those double letters begin the character position matches that letter's numerical place in the English alphabet. AARDVARK begins with AA, and A is the first letter of the alphabet. The same logic governs the other three.

SPOILER WARNING Full answers appear below this line.

Complete Answer Groups for July 11, 2026

The four groups below are confirmed by multiple independent sources, including Yahoo Tech and TechRadar.

The NYT Connections Companion the Times' own daily difficulty guide rated No. 1,126 at 1 out of 5, placing it at the easy end of the difficulty range.

The Purple Group: How the Letter Mechanic Works

The purple category requires attention to spelling structure rather than word meaning. Each word contains a doubled letter, and that doubled letter begins at the character position that corresponds to its rank in the English alphabet.

• AARDVARK the AA begins at position 1; A is the 1st letter of the alphabet.

• EBBING the BB begins at position 2; B is the 2nd letter.

• BOCCE the CC begins at position 3; C is the 3rd letter.

• TWIDDLE the DD begins at position 4; D is the 4th letter.

BOCCE and TWIDDLE are the tiles most likely to create confusion. Neither relates to a topic their inclusion in the purple group is purely about spelling pattern, not subject matter.

What AARDVARK, BOCCE, EBBING and TWIDDLE Mean

Aardvark a large burrowing nocturnal mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa, feeding primarily on ants and termites. Merriam-Webster confirms the correct spelling includes two Rs not one, as the word is sometimes misspelled. It is not a Toy Story character.

Bocce an Italian-origin outdoor bowling game in which players roll balls as close as possible to a small target ball called a pallino. Merriam-Webster confirms both the spelling and the definition. It is not a Toy Story reference.

Ebbing the present participle of ebb, describing something that recedes, diminishes, or falls away. Merriam-Webster's entry for ebb covers the tidal sense and the broader meaning of something declining in force or intensity.

Twiddle to turn, adjust, or manipulate something lightly and idly. Merriam-Webster gives the sense of turning lightly or playfully with one's fingers as in twiddling thumbs. It is not a Toy Story character.

The Toy Story Group: Who the Four Characters Are

The blue group draws from Pixar's Toy Story franchise: Bo Peep, Jessie, Slinky, and Woody.

Woody is the central cowboy character, established in the 1995 original. Slinky Dog listed simply as Slinky in today's puzzle is Woody's loyal friend in that same film. Jessie, the cowgirl, is introduced in Toy Story 2, where Woody discovers her as part of the Woody's Roundup toy collection. Bo Peep appears in both the original and the sequel, then returns as a central figure in Toy Story 4, where Pixar describes her as Woody's long-lost friend.

A note that circulates in online coverage: Bo Peep was not removed from the franchise in Toy Story 2. According to Disney D23, she appears in both the first and second films. Her toy was written out before Toy Story 3, but she is present in Toy Story 2.

Yesterday's Puzzle: Connections No. 1,125 July 10, 2026

The confirmed answer groups for Friday's puzzle No. 1,125, verified by TechRadar, are:

The purple group in No. 1,125 required players to spot that each answer begins with a baseball umpire's call: BALL, OUT, SAFE, and STRIKE. OUTKAST the Atlanta hip-hop duo is the correct spelling.

Connections, Wordle and the NYT Games Suite

Connections is one of several daily puzzles in the NYT Games suite alongside Wordle, Strands, and Pips. Wordle is a separate puzzle a five-letter word game with six attempts with its own answer each day. For players tracking both, our earlier coverage of Wordle puzzle #1,823 alongside that day's Connections groups shows how the two puzzles sit alongside each other in the morning rotation.

The official NYT Games listing on Google Play describes Connections as the 16-term, four-category grouping game, and Wordle as the five-letter, six-attempt word puzzle. Connections entered beta on June 12, 2023, according to a TechCrunch report from that August. Puzzle No. 1,126 marks well over three years of daily editions.