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Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →NYT Connections #776, published Saturday, July 26, 2025, groups the 16 words into herbs and spices, shades of green, ways to travel on foot, and beginnings of European capital names. Hints come first, followed by the full solution and the puzzle’s main red herrings.
Spoiler warning: The complete answers to New York Times Connections puzzle #776 appear below the hint section. Stop before the answer table if you are still solving.
Hints for Connections #776
Try these from least revealing to most revealing:
- Yellow: Add flavor.
- Green: Grassy hues.
- Blue: Long walks.
- Purple: Add more to make a city.
The 16 words in Connections #776
The grid contained:
LUXE, TREK, BOTTLE, WARS, COPE, ANISE, SARA, KELLY, SAGE, MARCH, HUNTER, MACE, HIKE, PEA, DILL, TRAMP
Connections #776 answers for July 26, 2025
The verified groups, in the usual Yellow-to-Purple order, were:
#1 Best Overall
| Color | Category | Words |
|---|---|---|
| Yellow | Herbs and spices | ANISE, DILL, MACE, SAGE |
| Green | Shades of green | BOTTLE, HUNTER, KELLY, PEA |
| Blue | Travel on foot | HIKE, MARCH, TRAMP, TREK |
| Purple | Starts of European capitals | COPE, LUXE, SARA, WARS |
Yellow: HERBS AND SPICES
ANISE, DILL, MACE, SAGE
Anise, dill, mace and sage are all used as culinary herbs or spices. Mace is the potentially unfamiliar answer: it is the spice made from the lacy covering surrounding the nutmeg seed.
Green: SHADES OF GREEN
BOTTLE, HUNTER, KELLY, PEA
Put “green” after each word: bottle green, hunter green, Kelly green and pea green. These are color names, not a group of bottles, people or vegetables. Bottle green and Kelly green are the less obvious pair for many solvers.
Blue: TRAVEL ON FOOT
HIKE, MARCH, TRAMP, TREK
Each word can describe moving along on foot. A hike or trek is a journey or walk, a tramp can mean walking or hiking, and a march usually suggests purposeful, organized or long-distance walking.
Purple: STARTS OF EUROPEAN CAPITALS
COPE, LUXE, SARA, WARS
These are truncated beginnings of European capital names:
- COPE → Copenhagen
- LUXE → Luxembourg, commonly called Luxembourg City when distinguishing the capital from the country
- SARA → Sarajevo
- WARS → Warsaw
This is a wordplay category. The four entries are not themselves places; they become recognizable city names when the remaining letters are supplied.
The trickiest parts of puzzle #776
WARS and TREK are an intentional distraction. Together they can suggest Star Wars and Star Trek, while ANISE can suggest star anise. Those associations are plausible, but they do not produce a group of four. Once TREK is placed with HIKE, MARCH and TRAMP, WARS is left as the beginning of Warsaw.
The green group relies on compound color names rather than the most familiar standalone shades. “Hunter green” and “pea green” may be easier to recognize, but “bottle green” and “Kelly green” complete the category. The purple group is also easier to see if the unusual four-letter fragments—especially LUXE and WARS—are tested as beginnings rather than treated as complete words.
How Connections works
Connections presents 16 words that must be divided into four groups of four. The categories are color-coded: Yellow is generally intended to be the easiest, while Purple is generally the most difficult. The game deliberately includes words that appear to fit more than one possible theme, so finding a tempting connection is not enough—you must check that all four words form the intended category.
The New York Times says the daily puzzle is released at midnight in the player’s time zone. Its official help information also says subscribers can access an archive of earlier Connections puzzles, including games dating back to June 12, 2023; access rules and availability can change.
Want more Connections puzzles?
For readers who prefer solving away from a screen, the publisher lists the official New York Times Connections puzzle book, Connections: Find the Common Threads in 100+ Puzzles of Wit and Wordplay. It is a separate print collection—not a reprint of puzzle #776—and the publisher lists an October 27, 2026 publication date, so check the retailer or publisher for current preorder and availability information.
A broader option is the New York Times Games’ Puzzle Mania! book, listed as published October 21, 2025. It combines new twists on Connections with material inspired by Wordle, Spelling Bee, the Mini Crossword, logic puzzles and trivia. It should be viewed as a wider NYT Games collection, not as the source of the July 26 answers.
Answer information is corroborated by contemporaneous puzzle guides and player discussion. The New York Times help page supports the game mechanics and archive information, but no official NYT difficulty rating for #776 was located.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the answers to NYT Connections #776?
The four groups are Herbs and Spices; Shades of Green; Travel on Foot; and Starts of European Capitals.
What does the purple group mean in Connections #776?
COPE begins Copenhagen, LUXE begins Luxembourg, SARA begins Sarajevo, and WARS begins Warsaw.
Best Value
What were the tricky words in Connections #776?
The main traps are the apparent Star Wars/Star Trek connection from WARS and TREK, star anise from ANISE, and the less familiar color names bottle green and Kelly green.
The Bottom Line
Final grouping: ANISE, DILL, MACE, SAGE are herbs and spices; BOTTLE, HUNTER, KELLY, PEA are shades of green; HIKE, MARCH, TRAMP, TREK mean travel on foot; and COPE, LUXE, SARA, WARS begin Copenhagen, Luxembourg, Sarajevo and Warsaw.
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