NYT Connections Hints and Answers for 20 July 2026

Today’s Connections puzzle has that familiar “hunt for a hidden word” twist in the purple category—so keep your eyes peeled for a theme that lives inside other words. The good news: the first three groups are fairly approachable, with the usual progression from clean, straightforward matches to slightly trickier wordplay.

Hints

Yellow (easiest): Think of announcing something loudly—what you might do when making an important announcement.

Green: These are kinds of noses, named for shapes, styles, or distinctive forms.

Blue: This group is about phrases that use images or places to mean opportunity or a chance to move forward.

Purple (hard): Something you drink is hidden at the start of each answer. The drink is the recurring “seed” tucked into the words.

If you’ve got one or two words isolated but aren’t sure where they fit, try this: write down any shared letters you can see at the beginning (especially for purple) and compare them to the kind of definition the category is asking for (announcement vs. nose vs. opportunity).

Answers

Yellow — Proclaim: blare, herald, sound, trumpet

Green — Kinds of noses: button, Greek, ski jump, snub

Blue — Used in metaphors for opportunity: blank page, horizon, oyster, window

Purple — Starting with fermented beverages: Alexa (ale), meadow (mead), portobello (port), sakes (sake)

Puzzle tip for next time: when you get to a purple “hidden in the clue words” category, don’t just scan for the hidden chunk—also sanity-check the whole answer. Often the drink is doing double duty: it’s both the hidden mechanism and a meaningful start to the final word.

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