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NYT Connections Puzzle #1118 — Answers & Solution
Friday, July 3, 2026 · Difficulty: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Hard
🧩 NYT Connections Puzzle #1118 — Complete Answers
- 🟨 Yellow – Positive Feelings: BLISS, FELICITY, HAPPINESS, WARM FUZZIES
- 🟩 Green – Retro Expressions Of Approval: COOL BEANS, FAR OUT, GROOVY, RIGHT ON
- 🟦 Blue – Bad Things To Give Someone: COLD SHOULDER, DIRTY LOOK, HARD TIME, RUNAROUND
- 🟪 Purple – What Things Pronounced "T" Might Refer To: GOLF ACCESSORY, GOSSIP, HOT DRINK, SHIRT
📋 All 16 Words — Puzzle #1118
✅ Full Answers — Puzzle #1118
🟨 Yellow — Positive Feelings
🟩 Green — Retro Expressions Of Approval
🟦 Blue — Bad Things To Give Someone
🟪 Purple — What Things Pronounced "T" Might Refer To
🔍 Detailed Breakdown
🟨 Yellow (Easiest) — Positive Feelings
The easiest category in Puzzle #1118 is "Positive Feelings". The four words are:
- BLISS
- FELICITY
- HAPPINESS
- WARM FUZZIES
🟩 Green (Medium) — Retro Expressions Of Approval
The medium category in Puzzle #1118 is "Retro Expressions Of Approval". The four words are:
- COOL BEANS
- FAR OUT
- GROOVY
- RIGHT ON
🟦 Blue (Hard) — Bad Things To Give Someone
The hard category in Puzzle #1118 is "Bad Things To Give Someone". The four words are:
- COLD SHOULDER
- DIRTY LOOK
- HARD TIME
- RUNAROUND
🟪 Purple (Hardest) — What Things Pronounced "T" Might Refer To
The hardest category in Puzzle #1118 is "What Things Pronounced "T" Might Refer To". The four words are:
- GOLF ACCESSORY
- GOSSIP
- HOT DRINK
- SHIRT
🎯 Strategy Tips for Puzzle #1118
Difficulty: ★★★★☆ (4/5) - Challenging. Strategy: Start with yellow if you recognize BLISS, FELICITY, and HAPPINESS as emotion synonyms—WARM FUZZIES completes this feel-good category. Green requires generational knowledge but GROOVY, FAR OUT, and RIGHT ON are recognizable retro phrases; COOL BEANS fits the pattern of vintage approval slang. Blue tests idiom knowledge—these phrases all work in "give someone the [phrase]" constructions: give the cold shoulder, give a dirty look, give a hard time, give the runaround. Purple is brutally clever wordplay requiring phonetic thinking: GOLF ACCESSORY = tee (the small peg), GOSSIP = tea (Gen Z/millennial slang "spill the tea"), HOT DRINK = tea (beverage), SHIRT = T-shirt. The key insight is that all can be pronounced/represented as "T"/"tea." Pro tip: If you spot three obvious happiness words, commit to that category. The purple category rewards cultural awareness—knowing "tea" means gossip is crucial. This puzzle showcases NYT Connections at its best: accessible entry points with a diabolical final twist.
⚠️ Red Herring Warning: Multiple deceptive connections exist: BLISS and HAPPINESS might seem too obvious to both be in the same category; GROOVY and FAR OUT could be misinterpreted as just "1960s words" without the approval specificity; COLD SHOULDER and DIRTY LOOK seem like "body language" or "facial expressions" rather than specifically "bad things to give someone"; SHIRT alone doesn't obviously indicate T-shirt. The purple category is especially devious because the connection isn't semantic but phonetic—solvers must recognize that GOLF ACCESSORY = tee, GOSSIP = tea (as in "spill the tea"), HOT DRINK = tea, and SHIRT = T-shirt. This requires both knowing modern slang ("tea" for gossip) and making the phonetic leap to the letter "T." Solvers who don't recognize "tea" as slang for gossip or who don't think of "tee" when seeing GOLF ACCESSORY will struggle. FELICITY might also be confused as a name rather than an emotion word.
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